stingray migration

it was a forward email to me . have you seen it ? i thought it will be too pitiful not to share it . .


mass migration of stingrays

looking like giant leaves floating in the sea , thousands of golden rays are seen here gathering off the coast of Mexico . the spectacular scene was captured as the magnificent creatures made one of their biannual mass migrations to more agreeable waters .

gliding silently beneath the waves , they turned vast areas of blue water to gold off the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula . Sandra Critelli , an amateur photographer , stumbled across the phenomenon while looking for whale sharks .

she said : " it was an unreal image , very difficult to describe . the surface of the water was covered by warm and different shades of gold and looked like a bed of autumn leaves gently moved by the wind . it's hard to say exactly how many there were , but in the range of a few thousand . we were surrounded by them without seeing the edge of the school and we could see many under the water surface too . I feel very fortunate i was there in the right place at the right time to experience nature at its best ."

measuring up to 7 ft ( 2.1 meters ) from wing-tip to wing-tip , golden rays are also more prosaically known as cow nose rays .

they have long , pointed pectoral fins that separate into two lobes in front of their high-domed heads and give them a cow-like appearance . despite having poisonous stingers , they are known to be shy and non-threatening when in large schools .

the population in the Gulf of Mexico migrates , in schools of as many as 10,000 , clockwise from western Florida to the Yucatan .