iStockphoto / drewsulockcreations
A drone operator in Florida captured a fever of stingrays with thousands and thousands of cownose rays swimming just off a beach in Anna Maria Island.
Justin Nadeau described it as feeling like “a National Geographic scene” when he witnessed how many cownose rays there were together. His video started with gorgeous footage of a shark chasing the rays in shallow water just off the beach but soon he realized just how many rays were in the fever.
A ‘fever’ is the term used to describe a group of stingrays but this is no ordinary fever, it is massive. And it is a very special moment caught on camera right off Bean Point, the northern tip of Anna Maria Island which marks the Southern tip of Tampa Bay.
Thousands Of Cownose Rays Off Beach In Anna Maria Island, Florida
An interesting feature of this area is how much water moves through the pass. Bean Point is at the northern tip of Anna Maria Island which is the Southern tip of Tampa Bay.
With the rising and falling of each tide, an incredible amount of water is sucked in and out right past this beach. And with that moving water, the food chain is incredibly active.
Small baitfish, shrimp, and crabs get pushed in and out with the tides and this brings in the predators to feed on smaller fish, hence the shark showing up (sharks LOVE stingrays). These thousands of cownose rays hugging the beach are there both for protection from predators provided by the shallows but also because the area is abundant with marine life. It’s a very beautiful slice of the food chain in action here.
Right place at the right time
Justin Nadeau told News Channel 8 he was filming around 9:30 am when he spotted a shark chasing cownose rays. It wasn’t until he turned his drone around the other direction that he spotted the thousands and thousands of rays swimming on the surface.
Nadeau says “My first initial reaction was ‘holy wow’ I’ve never seen so many before,” adding “After circling them for a bit, I noticed a shark right on the outside of them closing in. I immediately focused on the shark, hoping it was going to go in for the attack! Luckily for me, I got to witness it all happen live….felt like a National Geographic scene.”
Fun facts about cownose rays
These cownose rays are found all through the eastern Atlantic from New England in the North down to Brazil in the South and throughout the Caribbean. They typically inhabit shallow coastal waters, as seen here and live up to 21 years in the wild.
I was fortunate enough to see a school of cownose rays like this once before in Florida. It was on a family vacation to Captiva and Sanibel when I was a kid and we went parasailing (my first time). We flew over a school about this size with thousands of rays in every direction and later on the beach we could see them in the shallows almost being corralled by the sandbars. It was incredible.