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SCUBA DIVING NAROOMA

South Coast New South Wales

This article is written by Bill Barker of the Montague Divers Social Club, Narooma.

It appears each week in the Narooma News Newspaper.

RAYS

One of the great things about diving the South Coast is the number and variety of rays that can be seen. On almost every dive, the diver will come across Smooth and Black Stingrays, Eagle Rays, Fiddler Rays and Stingarees. Occasionally the diver will see a Numb Ray or a Shovelnose Ray.

Sometimes rays can even be seen from the shore, moving in shallow water or hanging around places where fish are being cleaned.

Rays are cousins of sharks and have evolved for a life on the sea floor. Most of them eat shellfish, crustaceans and worms, which they forage for on sandy bottoms. They are not aggressive and don’t have biting teeth, but many of them have stinging barbs on the tail that can be used defensively.

It is important for divers – and indeed anyone moving around on a sandy floor – to move with care so as not to stand on a stingray. When something comes down on a stingray’s back, the tail comes up in a reflex action, the barb drops down and can be driven into a leg, an arm or a body, with painful results.

Smooth and Black Stingrays are often two metres across the disc and up to four metres in length, which makes them a very impressive sight. They are usually not concerned with the presence of divers and will sometimes swim very close, as if encountering a diver was a daily occurrence. At other times, divers can approach these rays as they rest on the bottom. The ray will usually just sit there, sometimes raising its tail like a giant scorpion, as if to say ‘You can look, but you’d better not touch’!

Fiddler Rays, sometimes called Banjo Rays or Banjo Sharks, look more like something of a cross between a ray and a shark. The front half looks like a ray, but the back half has dorsal fins and a tail like a shark, which they use to move themselves around. They have a distinctive brown and white pattern on their backs. Sometimes these rays will allow a diver to approach very close, and they can even be touched if you are gentle. Fiddler Rays are completely harmless, having no stinging barb.

A smooth stingray at Montague Island

Lift off - an eagle ray gracefully flaps off into the blue

A stingaree lying buried in the sand

The front half of a Fiddler Ray looks like a ray

The Eagle Ray is a gentle and beautiful animal. Unlike the stingrays and stingarees, which move by rippling the edge of their disc, Eagle Rays move by flapping their ‘wings’ in a slow and graceful way. Eagle Rays (sometimes called Bull Rays or Bat Rays) are quite timid and usually move off if approached. However, patience can be rewarded if a diver moves very slowly. Most divers would regard a close encounter with an Eagle Ray as the highlight of their dive.

Stingarees are smaller fellows, that often lie buried in the sand except for their eyes. Divers always keep a careful watch for stingarees. If disturbed, the stingaree will usually make off at high speed, but there is always the danger of a sting.

One ray that could cause a problem for the unwary is the Numb Ray or Coffin Ray. This character has no stinging barb but instead has electric organs that can deliver a powerful electric shock. I’ve heard that divers have sometimes had this very unpleasant experience when resting their hand on a Numb Ray that lies buried in the sand. It is nice to see one of these animals, but they are not very common so the risk is not all that great.

Rays are still quite numerous. However, they can be vulnerable to fishing pressures, especially from trawling. In America, a ray that was previously plentiful, the Barndoor Skate has been reduced to near-extinction. In our own area, rays can be killed thoughtlessly, and many rays are particularly vulnerable because they tend to hang around fish cleaning tables in shallow water near boat ramps. Let’s hope that these beautiful and inoffensive animals are able to thrive into the future.