{"id":1474,"date":"2008-11-06T11:49:53","date_gmt":"2008-11-06T15:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1474"},"modified":"2008-11-19T08:49:15","modified_gmt":"2008-11-19T12:49:15","slug":"torpedoes-los","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1474","title":{"rendered":"Torpedoes Los!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Torpedo Ray (Torpedo nobiliana) in Sandwich, Cape Cod<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The string of rarities continues unabated on Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0 The Turtle Journal team saw its first torpedo ray two days ago\u00c2\u00a0in Wellfleet Bay.\u00c2\u00a0 We heard from Bob Prescott, director of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary<\/a>, that it was “the second one so far this fall.”\u00c2\u00a0 Okay, two unusual sightings could be a coincidence.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, though, we received a call from the National Marine Life Center<\/a> in Buzzards Bay where Don serves on the board of trustees.\u00c2\u00a0 A resident of East Sandwich asked for the center’s\u00c2\u00a0help in identifying a fish that had washed up on his beach.\u00c2\u00a0 “The animal looks like a skate, but it has a fish tail, not a spike.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s big and heavy, maybe 50 pounds.”\u00c2\u00a0 We asked him about the color.\u00c2\u00a0 “Sort of brownish,” he replied.\u00c2\u00a0 We suggested that he click on Turtle Journal to see the current\u00c2\u00a0posting on the torpedo ray<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 He called us back within a few minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 “I’ve got a torpedo ray.\u00c2\u00a0 Not as big as that one, but it’s a torpedo ray!”\u00c2\u00a0 We promised to\u00c2\u00a0check out\u00c2\u00a0his ray to confirm the identification, to take documentary photographs and to collect scientific data as soon as we completed\u00c2\u00a0our necropsy on the Wellfleet creature.<\/p>\n

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Google Locations of Two Female Torpedo Rays<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to the return of Eastern Standard Time, the sun was already setting as we reached the Sandwich beach.\u00c2\u00a0 The resident had obligingly lugged the animal above the high water mark after our phone conversation, so that it would not disappear with the tide.\u00c2\u00a0 He, his children, several neighbors and visitors came down to the beach to observe the analysis.\u00c2\u00a0 The fish was indeed a torpedo ray about a foot and a half shorter, a foot slimmer and half as massive as its Wellfleet cousin.\u00c2\u00a0 This ray was a bit riper, too, desiccated from a longer period of exposure to the elements.<\/p>\n

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

Female Torpedo Ray in Evening Surf at Sandwich Beach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We identified the animal as female, the same as the Wellfleet ray, and again\u00c2\u00a0we detected no obvious external sign of injury that would reveal\u00c2\u00a0her cause of death.\u00c2\u00a0 Don employed the “stress on the back” methodology for weight assessment\u00c2\u00a0when he flipped the creature over to examine its ventral (bottom) surface.\u00c2\u00a0 We estimate\u00c2\u00a0her weight a little north of 50 pounds … about half as massive as the Wellfleet ray, but we\u00c2\u00a0didn’t compensate for loss of mass due to\u00c2\u00a0desiccation.<\/p>\n

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Don Lewis Measures Width of Torpedo Ray<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The curved length of the fish measured from snout to trailing edge of caudal fin was three feet eleven inches.\u00c2\u00a0 Its width along the dorsal (top) side of the pectoral fins was two feet five inches.<\/p>\n

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Don Lewis Measures Length of Torpedo Ray’s Caudal Fin<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We measured the length of the caudal fin as eighteen inches and its height as seven and a half inches.\u00c2\u00a0 The width across the pelvic\u00c2\u00a0fins registered fifteen inches.<\/p>\n

Fun fact:<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 The word “torpedo” actually comes from the Latin derived Torpediniformes<\/em> for the order of electric rays, which in turn comes from the Latin “torpere<\/em>” (to stun), according to Wikipedia.\u00c2\u00a0 So, the weapon (torpedo) got its name from the torpedo ray and not vice versa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Torpedo Ray (Torpedo nobiliana) in Sandwich, Cape Cod The string of rarities continues unabated on Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0 The Turtle Journal team saw its first torpedo ray two days ago\u00c2\u00a0in Wellfleet Bay.\u00c2\u00a0 We heard from Bob Prescott, director of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, that it was “the second one so far this fall.”\u00c2\u00a0 Okay, […]<\/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\/1474"}],"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=1474"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1661,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474\/revisions\/1661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}