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11-14-2009, 06:05 PM | #1 |
Avalon Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: So. Cal. U.S.
Posts: 4,205
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First film of a 'giant' stingray
It is one of the rarest giants of the ocean, and it has been caught on film for the first time.
An underwater camera crew filming for the BBC has recorded a smalleye stingray swimming off the coast of Mozambique. The smalleye stingray is the largest of all 70 species of stingray, attaining widths of more than 2m. The elusive creature, first discovered in 1908, has only ever been seen alive off Tofo in southern Mozambique. Rare sight Stingrays are cartilaginous fish that are related to sharks. They occur is marine, freshwater and estuarine habitats and vary in size from the dwarf whipray (Himantura walga), which measures just 24cm wide, to the smooth or short-tail stingray (Dasyatis brevicaudata) which can grow over 2m wide. However, the smalleye stingray (D. microps) is the largest of all, able to grow to a width of 2.2m. Specimens have been caught in waters around Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and The Philippines, as well as in various places in the Indian Ocean, including with the Ganges River estuary. But live smalleye stingrays have only been recorded off Tofo, a beach in southern Mozambique that lies 425km north of South Africa and 820km west of the southern tip of Madagascar. See the video... http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth...00/8347298.stm |
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