Spotted Eagle Rays

Reasons To Love Spotted Eagle Rays …

Spotted Eagle Rays are such a treat to see on a dive! They glide so elegantly through the water and look like they’re flying. Not surprisingly this is where their name comes from; the way they fly through the water like an Eagle soars through the sky!

Spotted Eagle Rays (Aetobatus narinari) are part of the Myliobatidae family and are closely related to sharks too. There are less than 20 types of ray in this family including Manta Rays and Ornate Eagle Rays. All Eagle Rays have distinctive, elongated and pointed fins that they flap to propel themselves through the water. Like other Eagle Rays, Spotted Eagle Rays are active swimmers, so don’t lie still on the seafloor. Compared to other rays they do have a particularly long tail though and have several venomous barbs on their tails too!

As foragers they use their beak-like rostrum / nose to unearth prey (e.g. molluscs and crustaceans) from their hiding places under the sand and sediment. Once they have found their prey they use their specially adapted plate-like teeth and jaws to crush their shells.

We choose the Spotted Eagle Ray to be one of our suits because we love how distinctive they are. It makes for a super flattering design too.
Here’s what Emma had to say:

“Spotted eagle rays are both elegant and awe inspiring. A customer suggested we mimi the design and I just fell in love with the pattern immediately. Now it’s one of our bestsellers!”

Emma
woman wearing a black and white spotted eagle ray design body suit in the ocean
Love this shot of Chi rocking the Spotted Eagle Ray suit!!

4 reasons to love Spotted Eagle Rays:

No two are the same!

Much like human finger prints, each Spotted Eagle Ray has a unique pattern. The mixture of spots, lines and circles create a gorgeous design and the contrast with the white under belly make them quite easy to spot on a dive.

Sometimes they fly above the water too.

It’s is not completely known why they jump out of the water, but it has been suggested it could be to rid themselves of parasites or to escape pursuit (either from predators or wanted attention from the opposite sex).

The pups are pretty cute …

Spotted Eagle Rays give birth to live young (usually 2-4 pups per litter) after about a year long gestation period. They are ovoviviparous, so the female sustains the young via the yolk and only releases the pups as miniature versions of themselves once they are ready to survive on their own.

They are ambiverts

Sometimes you will see them flying solo when they need some alone time, but you can also see them flock together in large groups too. Did you know a group of Spotted Eagle Rays is called a ‘fever’ of rays!?

spotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari) swimming
Photo credit : Matt Potenski from Getty

We think ray of sunshine is definitely an apt term when discussing Spotted Eagle Rays and we hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about them :)

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