There are no personal pictures to share with you. We have learned from experience that the guitar fish blend so well with their environment that it is difficult to catch them with a regular camera. Not to mention that they move so quickly when they discover they are so close to the beach.
This week is the first time that we have seen any fish at all. Earl spotted one close to the pier. It turned and was gone. The last two days we have seen quite a few of them down at the south end of the beach close to the "castle."
The tide was coming in and with it came several guitarfish who were just floating along minding their own business. Suddenly it seems to hit them that they are in very, very shallow water. They turn and in an instant they are headed back to the ocean and lost and in the waves and foam.
This is close to what the fish look like when we see them. We only see their backs and never a side angle. And we don't really glimpse their eyes either. The shadows in the first picture are similar to what we see when looking for the fish. With the shadows shifting and water moving, it is difficult to spot any type of fish.
A shovelnosed guitarfish
Rhinobatos productus
Chondrichthyes: Rhinobatidae
We were trying to catch some pompano last Sunday, fishing with live shrimp. My neighbor Emily got the first bite of the day, and hauled in a fish I had never seen before. As you can see in the picture above, it looks a little bit like a shark and a little bit like a stingray. It's a guitarfish, which is a type of ray. It put up a good fight. We snapped a few pictures then tossed him back in the surf.
19 APRIL 2015 |
Beach Wildlife - Guitar Fish
Written by JasonOne last page about guitarfish
Frequently when we see the guitarfish they are lying in the sand. When they are startled the sand flies everywhere and they are gone. It is not a surprise that they live in water no deeper than 40 feet and feed on small crabs. At night they go out hunting.
Shovelnose guitarfish crunch crabs and other shelled invertebrates with their pebble-like teeth. These rays are harmless
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