Catching Some Rays on NatGeo

Of what seem like a zillion beach days here in Florida, in the Caribbean, in California, in New Hampshire (seems like I end up at the beach no matter where I am) one of my all time favorites was a day in Treasure Island, FL. Fifteen years ago it was a happily overlooked strip of sand dotted with mom and pop motels. I'll never forget going into the water and finding myself sharing the shoreline with cownose rays. They were about the size of record albums, maybe a tad bigger, but I had never seen a wild ray before and could have watched them flutter along, nearly matching the sand in color and undulation, forever.

Skate at the Orlando Science Center, photo by Liz Langley
I can only imagine what it's like to see an animal as big as the one picture in my NatGeo story: Beyond the Car-Sized Stingray: 5 Fast Facts About Rays and Skates which came on the heels of researchers discovering a massive ray in Thailand. I got to talk to marine biologists about these awesome animals which are so primitive - only about 150 million years old says the Florida Museum of Natural History - but so sleek and in many ways so perfect. Well, good for them for getting it right early on:

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