{"id":1549,"date":"2008-11-11T11:34:31","date_gmt":"2008-11-11T15:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1549"},"modified":"2008-11-11T11:34:31","modified_gmt":"2008-11-11T15:34:31","slug":"more-torpedo-rays-raise-more-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1549","title":{"rendered":"More Torpedo Rays Raise More Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The torpedo mystery continues and deepens.\u00c2\u00a0 You may have already read in Turtle Journal about the first three torpedo rays that washed up on Cape Cod beaches.\u00c2\u00a0 (See Shocking Discovery! Torpedo Ray in Wellfleet Bay<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and Torpedoes Los!<\/a>).\u00c2\u00a0 Since our last posting, two more torpedo ray deaths have been confirmed: one in Brewster and another in Sandwich.\u00c2\u00a0 Both were females, bringing the total to five dead torpedo rays; four confirmed as female, one not examined by the Turtle Journal team.<\/p>\n

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Cellphone Picture of Female Torpedo Ray in Brewster<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On Sunday evening, we received correspondence from Jackie, a Turtle Journal reader from Chatham on the elbow of Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0 She had encountered an unidentified creature, presumably a skate, on the beach between Ellis and Linnell Landings in Brewster on October 31st.\u00c2\u00a0 Jackie estimated the length and the width of the animal to be around three feet.\u00c2\u00a0 Realizing that what she found was not a skate, she searched the web to find our postings of the torpedo ray.\u00c2\u00a0 While Jackie apologizes for the photo quality (since it came from her cellphone), her images provide excellent documentation of the torpedo ray and its gender identification.\u00c2\u00a0 Thank you, Jackie!<\/p>\n

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Fifth Torpedo Ray to Wash Up on Cape Cod Beaches<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mystery torpedo ray number five drifted ashore in Sandwich.\u00c2\u00a0 At noon yesterday (Monday), Vinny from Sandwich … the resident who reported the third torpedo ray last week … called the Turtle Journal 24\/7 hotline (508-274-5108).\u00c2\u00a0 He found another ray on Carlton Shoals in Sandwich, just a little further to the east than his\u00c2\u00a0first discovery.\u00c2\u00a0 Luckily, Sue Wieber Nourse was exploring Sandy Neck in neighboring Barnstable and responded to the site to examine the specimen.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Seagull Munches on Torpedo Ray at Carlton Shores, Sandwich<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By the time she arrived, local gulls were licking their chops in delight after munching another tasty seafood morsel.\u00c2\u00a0 They had already stipped clean the caudal fin, making length measurements a bit iffy at approximately 3.5 feet.\u00c2\u00a0 The width of this torpedo ray across the pectoral fin was two feet three inches.\u00c2\u00a0 (You may recall that the other Sandwich torpedo ray measured two feet five inches across its pecs.)\u00c2\u00a0 Without Don’s back for a more precise (sic) measurement of the critter’s weight, Sue estimated the weight at around 40 pounds.<\/p>\n

Questions still loom about why we are seeing these offshore rays washing up on our inner Cape Cod beaches this fall.\u00c2\u00a0 So far, Turtle Journal has no answers to share.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The torpedo mystery continues and deepens.\u00c2\u00a0 You may have already read in Turtle Journal about the first three torpedo rays that washed up on Cape Cod beaches.\u00c2\u00a0 (See Shocking Discovery! Torpedo Ray in Wellfleet Bay\u00c2\u00a0and Torpedoes Los!).\u00c2\u00a0 Since our last posting, two more torpedo ray deaths have been confirmed: one in Brewster and another in […]<\/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\/1549"}],"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=1549"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1560,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549\/revisions\/1560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}