Spotted Eagle Rays

indahs April 19, 2018

37th edition of Marine Life monthly post. Marine Life post published every 19th of the month. It aims to share information about the marine life species and to promote their conservation. All images in this post are taken by Indah Susanti unless stated otherwise.

I have seen the spotted eagle rays multiple times when scubadiving, however, I have never seen them as a group just like the ones I had seen in Galapagos (Ecuador).

Galapagos Diving

We saw them for three days in a row (magical scuba diving days in Galapagos ❤ ~ I do miss those days) and I could not get enough of watching them. They swam away from us after noticing our scuba bubbles. Bummer. Maybe they instinctively move away after considering us as some weird predators. Sharks are their main predator, and there are numerous sharks in Galapagos.

Galapagos Diving

The spotted eagle rays (Aetobatus narinari) is considered by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) to be ‘near threatened’. Their threat is mainly due to humans’ “unintentionally” caught on the fishing net from the fisheries industries. The eagle rays are not targeted for seafood lovers’ consumption – which is great but it becomes an irony as they died due the fishing process to meet humans’ seafood consumption.

Galapagos Diving

The spotted eagle rays are known for its ability to jump out of the water as though in flight, before splashing back in again (source). Sometimes people are mistaken it as Manta Rays that jump out of the water, while actually it is an eagle ray. There are few stories that the jumping eagle rays landed on humans or boats. The eagle rays are pretty heavy, their weights could reach 200 kilograms (around 440 lbs). That won’t be a fun landing to anyone or imagine the damage they can make to the boat.

Galapagos Diving

Following is a video of the Spotted Eagle Rays in Cozumel (Mexico). The video was made by L. Scott Harrell – please take a look at his Youtube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/user/aroundpensacola – for more amazing underwater videos 🙂