A fish and wildlife survey crew in Connecticut made a rare catch in Long Island Sound on Wednesday, pulling up an estimated 400-pound roughtail stingray.
The stingray was 6-feet long and 5-feet wide, and came up in the trawl upside down, exposing its light-colored ventral side (or belly), the Connecticut Fish and Wildlife reported.
The CFW Long Island Sound Trawl Survey crew also pulled up a cobia, a predatory fish that can measure over 6 feet and weigh 150 pounds.
“Our Long Island Sound Trawl Survey crew never knows what they might see on a given day out on the Sound – [Wednesday] was a stand-out example,” CFW wrote on Facebook.
“These gentle giants are found along the Atlantic coast from New England to Florida but are relatively rare in Long Island Sound.
“Like all stingrays, roughtails have a venomous spine in their tail – but not to worry – they are not aggressive, and don’t frequent shallow nearshore waters where people wade and swim.”
The CFW noted that the crew decided not to roll the roughtail stringray over, taking precautions in order to avoid killing the fish.
“Our crew quickly took some measurements and immediately returned the ray to the water to watch it swim away alive and well,” CFW wrote.
As for the cobia, that is a species found in the Atlantic but historically are most abundant south of Chesapeake Bay (Delaware/Maryland).
“However, as climate change has caused New England waters to warm, this species has become an increasingly common visitor to Long Island Sound,” CFW wrote. “The Long Island Sound Trawl Survey is one of the primary tools that CT DEEP uses to document the ‘new normal’ that is rapidly being created right here in CT by climate change.”