{"id":2408,"date":"2009-03-20T11:50:08","date_gmt":"2009-03-20T16:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=2408"},"modified":"2009-03-20T11:50:08","modified_gmt":"2009-03-20T16:50:08","slug":"large-aggregation-of-cownose-rays-off-vanderbilt-beach-in-southwest-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=2408","title":{"rendered":"Large Aggregation of Cownose Rays off Vanderbilt Beach in Southwest Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Aggregation of Cownose Rays off Vanderbilt Beach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Every Turtle Journal expedition into the field seems to produce a new surprise.\u00c2\u00a0 After more than three decades of exploration of the Southwest Florida coastline, one might expect the frequency of surprises to taper off.\u00c2\u00a0 But alas, they wonderfully keep occurring … which keeps us fully alert and engaged as we lug our gear down to the beach for a morning stroll.\u00c2\u00a0 March 10th and 11th dawned bright and warm with daytime temperature stretching into the 80s.\u00c2\u00a0 As Sue Wieber Nourse walked the Vanderbilt Beach shore\u00c2\u00a0in front of\u00c2\u00a0the Naples Ritz Carlton, she was thrilled to find a mass aggregation of cownose rays (Rhinoptera bonasus<\/em>) sailing along the beach in knee deep water.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Cownose Ray\u00c2\u00a0(Rhinoptera bonasus)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The cownose ray, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Ichthyology site<\/a>, derives its scientific name (Rhinoptera<\/em>) from the Greek “rhinos” for nose and “pteron” for wing.\u00c2\u00a0 Clearly, its “nose” represents the ray’s most distinctive and identifying feature.\u00c2\u00a0 Cownose rays can be found all along the Atlantic coastline from here in\u00c2\u00a0Cape Cod\u00c2\u00a0to the tip of Florida, as well as the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

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Cownose Rays\u00c2\u00a0Fly Along Naples Coastline<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While the cownose ray is a pelagic or ocean-going fish, it can be found along the warm, shallow coastline.\u00c2\u00a0 They are known to be gregarious, which may account for the mass aggregation Sue witnessed at Vanderbilt Beach.\u00c2\u00a0 They are benthic feeders, but also forage along the shoreline and in bays and estuaries.\u00c2\u00a0 Their menu includes quite a smorgasbord of critters from bivalves and gastropods to crabs, lobsters and finfish.<\/p>\n

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

Cownose Ray Aggregation\u00c2\u00a0off Vanderbilt Beach in Naples<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sue observed foraging activity close into the shoreline on both March 10th and 11th, as well as non-foraging behavior in slightly deeper water.\u00c2\u00a0 She saw this massive group swim both north and then south along Vanderbilt Beach at various times\u00c2\u00a0during the morning, rather than in a single direction as one might expect in a migration.<\/p>\n

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Cownose Rays<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Whatever the cause\u00c2\u00a0 of this mass aggregation, the sight of\u00c2\u00a0such majestic fish sailing effortless through the surf created a sensation for\u00c2\u00a0gawking tourists who had similarly flocked to Vanderbilt Beach\u00c2\u00a0to take advantage of\u00c2\u00a0these warm March days and to\u00c2\u00a0forage the coastal restaurants for fare ranging from “bivalves and gastropods to crabs, lobsters and finfish.”\u00c2\u00a0 I guess when you probe to the very gut of the matter there’s not too much difference among species.<\/p>\n

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

Southwest Florida Dolphins<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While documenting the cownose rays, Sue was pleasantly surprised by a pod of dolphins that joined in the fun.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0An overly curious\u00c2\u00a0juvenile dolphin broke from the pod and swam directly up to Sue to investigate what she was doing.\u00c2\u00a0 A perfect punctuate to a perfect Southwest Florida morning.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aggregation of Cownose Rays off Vanderbilt Beach Every Turtle Journal expedition into the field seems to produce a new surprise.\u00c2\u00a0 After more than three decades of exploration of the Southwest Florida coastline, one might expect the frequency of surprises to taper off.\u00c2\u00a0 But alas, they wonderfully keep occurring … which keeps us fully alert and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[402],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408"}],"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=2408"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2437,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408\/revisions\/2437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}