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Stingray
Fishing a stingray out of the sea just off the Crane foreshore is a rather rare undertaking but was however one that occurred this past week.
Fishermen from the Crane, West Coast Demerara village had set a seine and were merely hoping for a usual catch. They were quite surprised when they found, trapped in their seine, a dangling stingray.
Recognising that the creature could present some danger, moves were soon made to remove its tail after which it was paraded through the streets for villagers to see. The rarity was eventually displayed on a tree and this publication was told that it would have been sold to the highest bidder.
Stingrays are a group of rays, which are cartilaginous fish related to sharks.
Most stingrays have one or more barbed stingers (modified from dermal denticles) on the tail, which are used exclusively in self-defence. The stinger may reach a length of approximately 35 cm (14 in), and its underside has two grooves with venom glands. The stinger is covered with a thin layer of skin, the integumentary sheath, in which the venom is concentrated. A few members of the suborder, such as the manta and porcupine rays, do not have stingers.
However those with stingers are not known to aggressively attack humans, though stings do normally occur if a ray is accidentally stepped on. To avoid stepping on a stingray in shallow water, the water should be waded through with a shuffle. Alternatively, before wading, stones can be thrown into the water to scare stingrays away. Contact with the stinger causes local trauma (from the cut itself), pain, swelling, muscle cramps from the venom, and later may result in infection from bacteria or fungus. The injury is very painful, but seldom life-threatening unless the stinger pierces a vital area. The barb usually breaks off in the wound, and surgery may be required to remove the fragments.
Fatal stings are very rare, but can happen, most famously in the death of Steve Irwin in 2006, in which the stinger penetrated the thoracic wall, causing massive trauma.
Fisherman Lawrence Inniss admires his rare catch
Stingrays are common in coastal tropical and subtropical marine waters throughout the world. Some species are found in warmer temperate oceans, and others are found in the deep ocean. The river stingrays, and a number of whiptail stingrays are restricted to fresh water.
While most stingrays are relatively widespread and not currently threatened, for several species conservation status is more problematic, leading to their being listed as vulnerable or endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Rays are edible, and may be caught as food using fishing lines or spears.
The flattened bodies of stingrays allow them to effectively conceal themselves in their environment. Stingrays do this by agitating the sand and hiding beneath it. Because their eyes are on top of their bodies and their mouths on the undersides, stingrays cannot see their prey; instead, they use smell and electroreceptors similar to those of sharks.
They are known to feed primarily on molluscs, crustaceans, and occasionally on small fish. Some stingrays’ mouths contain two powerful, shell-crushing plates, while other species only have sucking mouthparts.
This creature has the potential to settle on the bottom while feeding, often leaving only their eyes and tail visible. Coral reefs are favourite feeding grounds and are usually shared with sharks during high tide.
When a male is courting a female, he will follow her closely, biting at her pectoral disc. He then places one of his two claspers into her valve. They are ovoviviparous, bearing live young in litters of five to 13. The female holds the embryos in the womb without a placenta. Instead, the embryos absorb nutrients from a yolk sac, and after the sac is depleted, the mother provides uterine “milk”.
(Information source – Wikipedia)
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