{"id":1448,"date":"2008-11-05T09:37:18","date_gmt":"2008-11-05T13:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1448"},"modified":"2008-11-05T10:03:51","modified_gmt":"2008-11-05T14:03:51","slug":"shocking-discovery-torpedo-ray-in-wellfleet-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1448","title":{"rendered":"Shocking Discovery! Torpedo Ray in Wellfleet Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Torpedo Ray (Torpedo nobiliana) in Wellfleet Bay<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We have\u00c2\u00a0uncovered some unusual finds the last few days.\u00c2\u00a0 A large blue shark<\/a>, one of the world’s ten most dangerous, came ashore on the tidal flats of Lieutenant Island.\u00c2\u00a0 A rafter of wild turkeys<\/a> appeared with traffic-stopping effect along the main Outer Cape highway in Eastham.\u00c2\u00a0 An exotic ocean sunfish<\/a> stranded at the end of Shirttail Point in Wellfleet Harbor.\u00c2\u00a0 And harbor seals<\/a> seem to have moved in for the fall season.<\/p>\n

You might expect that we\u00c2\u00a0would be getting used to running into rare specimens.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe so, but we were still shocked … thankfully only figuratively … when we ran into a large, female torpedo ray floating off the Wellfleet town landing at Burton Baker Beach.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Virginia, about a mile north of the blue shark.\u00c2\u00a0 For those who may not be familiar with the torpedo ray, a group\u00c2\u00a0within which\u00c2\u00a0Don blissfully counted himself until today, this fish is an electric ray that can deliver a 220 volt charge\u00c2\u00a0in a short duration burst.\u00c2\u00a0 (ASIDE:\u00c2\u00a0 If Don actually had known about torpedo rays and that this strange looking creature was a torpedo ray, he wonders if he would have waded into the water to determine what it was and whether it was alive or dead … even with his pseudo-rubber boots.)<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Sue Wieber Nourse Measures FemaleTorpedo Ray<\/em><\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The torpedo ray is a cartilaginous fish … like sharks and skates.\u00c2\u00a0 Its shape is a round, flat disk with a relatively short, large caudal fin that has two dorsal fins.\u00c2\u00a0 While this ray can reach 6 feet long and 200 pounds, most torpedo rays taken from the Atlantic fall in the 75 pound range.\u00c2\u00a0 It does not have spines or thorns that are characteristic of common skates.\u00c2\u00a0 Small eyes are set forward and this ray’s color is brownish or purplish on the dorsal (top) surface and white on the ventral (bottom) side.<\/p>\n

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Brownish Color; Short, Large Caudal Fin with Two Dorsal Fins<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Habitat for the nocturnal torpedo ray is benthic (bottom of the sea) where it buries itself in the sand during the day.\u00c2\u00a0 While described as pelagic, torpedo rays can be found mostly along the continental shelf in water from 10 to 350 meters deep.\u00c2\u00a0 They are not common in inshore waters.\u00c2\u00a0 This fish is the only electric ray that is found in the northwest Atlantic Ocean and historic records document torpedo rays in Vineyard Sound, Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod Bay, especially the Provincetown area.<\/p>\n

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Female Torpedo Ray with Pelvic Fins & No Claspers<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This specimen was identified as a female with pelvic fins\u00c2\u00a0and no claspers.\u00c2\u00a0 Factoid: Torpedo ray females bear live young.<\/p>\n

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Pectoral Fins Guide Stunned Food To Its Protruding Mouth<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The torpedo ray has\u00c2\u00a0two kidney-shaped electrical organs that make up 20% of its weight and\u00c2\u00a0are located on the pectoral fins.\u00c2\u00a0 They generate a power equivalent\u00c2\u00a0to 220 volts that stuns prey with a burst of electric current.\u00c2\u00a0 Its prey includes flounder, silver hake fish, small sharks such as dogfish, eels, worms and crustaceans.\u00c2\u00a0 After stunning its prey, the torpedo ray guides food with its pectoral fins toward its protruding mouth for ingestion.<\/p>\n

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Four Feet Six Inches From Snout to Caudal Fin<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We measured this specimen along the spine from the tip of its snout to the trailing edge of its caudal fin.\u00c2\u00a0 The curved length is four feet six inches.\u00c2\u00a0 The maximum width across the pectoral fins (along the dorsal surface) is three feet two inches.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Caudal Fin Measures One Foot Five Inches Long<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The width across\u00c2\u00a0her pelvic fins is one foot\u00c2\u00a0five inches, the exact same measurement as the length of the caudal fin.\u00c2\u00a0 The height of the caudal fin is 11 inches.\u00c2\u00a0 We had no scale that could weigh a creature of this size.\u00c2\u00a0 So, we used the Don “how much torque does it take to flip this animal” methodology, similar to the technique we employed on the blue shark.\u00c2\u00a0 His back estimates that the torpedo ray weighed somewhere south of 100 pounds.<\/p>\n

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Torpedo rays have no significant commercial value today.\u00c2\u00a0 Once upon a time when Southeast Massachusetts was the OPEC of its day, providing the\u00c2\u00a0energy that lit the\u00c2\u00a0entire world, liver oil of torpedo rays was considerd equal\u00c2\u00a0to the best sperm whale oil for illumination.\u00c2\u00a0 Some in those days said that torpedo ray oil cured cramps if rubbed externally and stomach ailments when taken internally.\u00c2\u00a0 We can attest to the fact that the torpedo ray is one awfully oily fish that we had to wrestle into place\u00c2\u00a0to take measurements and captured documentary images.\u00c2\u00a0 (You’re right it was muscus and not oil, but the allusion wouldn’t have worked if\u00c2\u00a0we had said “slimy” rather than “oily.”\u00c2\u00a0 You caught\u00c2\u00a0us distorting science to play with words and\u00c2\u00a0our only defense is that it’s Guy Fawkes Day, and\u00c2\u00a0words are\u00c2\u00a0safer to\u00c2\u00a0play with\u00c2\u00a0than bonfires … and\u00c2\u00a0barrels of gunpowder. “Remember, remember, the Fifth of November<\/em>.”)<\/p>\n

Do you remember just a few weeks ago when swimming in Wellfleet Bay seemed like a safe pasttime?\u00c2\u00a0 Those were the halcyon days of our innocence.\u00c2\u00a0 Remember our friend Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”<\/p>\n

And, yes, we did vote yesterday.\u00c2\u00a0 Hope all our readers did, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Torpedo Ray (Torpedo nobiliana) in Wellfleet Bay We have\u00c2\u00a0uncovered some unusual finds the last few days.\u00c2\u00a0 A large blue shark, one of the world’s ten most dangerous, came ashore on the tidal flats of Lieutenant Island.\u00c2\u00a0 A rafter of wild turkeys appeared with traffic-stopping effect along the main Outer Cape highway in Eastham.\u00c2\u00a0 An exotic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[824],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1448"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1470,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448\/revisions\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}