Healthy stingray population Ricketts point

[aussie_fisho]

I'm not a big fan of stingrays at all, and I think many of you would agree. Went for a swim around rickets point just out from the marine park, and I was so suprised to see how many stingrays were in the area. Within a 300m stretch of water I found over 30 stingrays, all different species( eagle, common, skate and more) if they were swimming around freely or sitting under ledge, one large black Ray is very friendly and a word of warning for any of you that swim around there, it actually tries to bump or play with you, even with its barb sitting in its tail :!:

Cheers aussie

[shazdoggg]

Actually I love stingrays! The bigger the better! To be honest, I used to pee pee myself when I first started diving and came across them. But you soon learn their giant puppy dogs of the ocean. They are pretty friendly if you have food on you and the biggest ones are usually the most tame in my experience.

[Lecterfan]

Stingrays serve a purpose like everything else in nature. Like most elasmobranches they are relatively slow to reproduce... if the flat ones aren't harvested by amateurs or exploited by commericals then there are going to be more of them around than the other varieties...

edit: also it can sometimes be useful to remember that 'stingray' is a catch-all term that we apply to all sorts of flat critters that aren't necessarily stingrays