About 20 inches long and 12 inches wide, flat and disc shaped with a venomous serrated spine located on the tail. Their sting is not life threatening but very painful.
Several folks here on the beach will attest to their painful sting.
The round stingray of the Sea of Cortez is a solitary creature, only congregating during mating season of January through March. When they arrive in masses here in Conception Bay.
They live on the sandy bottoms of the bays feeding on benthic invertebrates such as worms, shrimp and crabs.
(benthic invertebrates are animals without a backbone that lives on or under the surface of the sea bottom)
Their life expectancy is about 8 years.
The male sting ray latches on to the female during the mating process by biting on with his teeth and holding tight while completing the insemination process.
Female gestation period is 3 months and they produce a liter of 3-6 young.
And during the Stingrays reproductive months here on Coyote Beach, we all cautiously shuffle along in the shallow waters, very aware of those stinging tails.
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