"Think of a shark under a steam roller and flattened out and then you have a ray," said Stephen Kajiura, director of FAU's Elasmobranch Laboratory. Sharks and rays, including the more commonly sighted spotted eagle rays, are related in that their skeletons are made of pliable cartilage rather than bone.
#Manta ray florida mac
Some of Pate's manta rays were seen frequently enough they earned names such as sky, Ricky and Stevie Nicks – a moniker given by an intern who had been listening to Fleetwod Mac the night before. She said it wasn't a shock to find the inquisitive ocean titans along Palm Beach County's coast, but it was a surprise to find only young ones. Jessica Pate, whose study on the manta ray nursery was published this month in the journal Endangered Species Research, is also founder and lead scientist for the Florida Manta Project. They do not have barbed tails like stingrays.
The gentle ocean megafauna feed on tiny zooplankton, funneling water into their mouth with two horn-like fins on either side of their head, and are no threat to humans. Three years of continuing research of coastal waters largely from the Jupiter Inlet to the Boynton Inlet found an unusual number of juvenile manta rays gliding through shallow waters sometimes just feet from swimmers. MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) - A nursery for giant oceanic manta rays has been discovered in the saltwater border of Palm Beach County in a study scientists say is a first step to protecting what could be critical habitat for the threatened species.
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