USVI-On-Line

What do you think about that spotted eagle ray leaping into the boat in Florida last week? Pretty freaky, eh? I was swimming after one at Waterlemon this past spring when in stopped and turned slightly to look at me and then kept going... needless to say I stopped the pursuit there. Those eagle ray tails are loooong.

I didn't hear about that incident.
My husband and I were snorkeling in Key Largo in 2004 and 2 giant spotted eagle rays swam right next to us.
They WERE huge and freaked me out! I wish I had a picture of it It was just one of those moments that we will never forget.

I've seen rays jump out of the water while sailing. I've heard the theory that they are trying to knock off parasites or they're being chased by a predator.
I've also been told by back country (Islamorada, FL) fishing charter captains that rays landing into boats does happen.

Hello VI friends! I have been reading everyones posts for a while now and decided to join. My husband and I travel down to STJ every year about this time of year. We are not able to go this year, so I have been here looking at all the great pictures and enjoying all the trip reports. I am going to attempt to share a picture I took a few years ago at Waterlemon of a spotted eagle ray...
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/93845125@N ... 59948/[img]

I am going to try one more time...

Here's mine




One of my favorite snorkeling shots. My wife
with puckery fingers from being in the water so long:

Here is a picture of an eagle ray that I took at Waterlemon. Bob and Anita fixed the photo to make it so clear--I still have not figured out how to do that myself:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/198486100/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/59/198486100_1b7d53766c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="bob and anitas eagle ray enhancement"></a>

On this same trip, when we were at Francis, we saw a ray leap completely out of the water. We swam over to see if we could see why it did that, and found it surrounded by lots of little fish--maybe they were bothering the ray or something.

Wow--thank you all so much for those awesome pictures. I saw my first spotted ray last May in St. John--it was so beautiful. Thanks for the memories...