They eat the mollusks by crushing the shells between their terrazo-like tooth plates.
(Credit: Jay Fleming/SERC) Every summer, cownose rays stream into Chesapeake Bay … Cownose Rays are a highly migratory species, swimming the length of the Western Atlantic coast from Florida to the Chesapeake Bay, where they give live birth and mate.
Cownose Rays are a highly migratory species, swimming the length of the Western Atlantic coast from Florida to the Chesapeake Bay, where they give live birth and mate. They certainly go way north of that, as anyone who spends time on the bay knows. Often, the remains end up as sources of fertilizer. Tournaments … They migrate to the bay once a year and are gobbling up oysters. New research shows that the Chesapeake Bay’s cownose rays spend their winters off Cape Canaveral with other East Coast rays before returning to the Bay each spring to bear their young and mate. Cownose rays are a typical resident of the Chesapeake Bay and it's rivers, but more of these shark relatives are appearing in our coastal waters. Fisher says that although demand for ray meat may be low today, there’s the potential for a fishery to develop. In the Chesapeake Bay, cownose rays are becoming a bit of a nuisance. Every year, groups of cownose rays swim up from Florida to the Chesapeake Bay to give birth - and the vision of the animals is truly awe-inspiring. There are several subspecies of cownose rays, but the most common here in the Chesapeake Bay, and in the Atlantic, is called Rhinoptera bonasus (rhine-Op-ter-a bon-ass-us), which essentially means "nose-wing-bison" in Latin.
The diet of the cownose ray population in the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia consists primarily of bivalve mollusks. “Similar ray species are harvested in other regions in the world,” he says. Although they are graceful swimmers in our shallow waters, these rays do pose two problems: All that said, you probably should get the book because it's useful in spite of the flaws. Feeding. Cownose Ray Rhinoptera bonasus. Cownose rays feed on bottom-dwelling shellfish, lobster, crabs and fish. Another option may lie in developing a market for cownose rays as a seafood product. They have a brown back, whitish belly and a deep notch in the head, giving a double-headed appearance. The Chesapeake ray, also called the cownose ray, sucks clams and oysters from the bed of the Chesapeake Bay, crushes them with rock-hard plates that serve as …
They prefer warm temperate and tropical waters to depths of 72 feet. Fisher hopes to test the magnets in Chesapeake Bay next spring. Adult cownose rays may be up to 45 inches wide and weigh up to 50 pounds. For other species of cownose rays, see Rhinoptera.. To locate their prey, cownose rays have electroreceptors on their snouts as well as excellent senses of smell and touch. Don't just kill them, a Cownose ray is good eating! This mass migration often involves schools of over 1,000 individuals and usually occurs in late spring or early summer.
Findings strengthen case for precautionary management strategies. A new study closes the loop on the annual migratory pathway of cownose rays along the U.S. East Coast, suggesting that mature animals likely return to the same nursery grounds in Chesapeake Bay and other East Coast estuaries each summer after overwintering in Atlantic coastal waters off central Florida.
And some of the information seems inaccurate, for example saying that cownose rays go only as far north as Tilghman Island (look in vain on the map for that place!). Cownose Ray: An Edible Nuisance. Many gather in Chesapeake Bay during the summer months. In the Chesapeake Bay, cownose rays are commercial bycatch of the fishing industry and are often targeted for recreational fishing. Unlike other rays it has a double-bump head that gives it shape like a cow nose. Rays that are caught by recreational fishing are typically disposed of and not used. Cownose rays are highly specialized to eat bivalves like softshell clams, macoma clams and razor clams. From above, the …