December Animal: Spotted Eagle Ray

This is a stock photography shot from a collection I purchased. This August, from the second floor of a condo, my husband spotted two dark shapes in the water. We grabbed snorkels and masks. We ran to see what the shapes were. Even before we went into the water we could see they were spotted eagle rays.  Their tails are bizarrely long. They seem to fly as they swim. An eagle ray has a beak-like mouth. It can crunch hard-shelled bivalves such as scallops and clams. Eagle rays, like all rays, are related to sharks. They are elasmobranchs. Now, that is a fun word.