Manta Ray

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We're in Florida on the shore for our kids school vacation. I've been surf casting for Pompano (quite tasty). Yesterday all of a sudden this Manta Ray ambles by...Yikes!

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I snapped away with my phone...unfortunately this is the best picture I got. You can see the tips of his wings to the right and his dorsal fin on the left. He was easily 15 - 18 wide. In all my years coming here I've never seen one this large this close to shore. The're not dangerous, but I wasn't interested in finding out if he was going to go around me or not:O
 
Cool manta ray. Used to see them all the time in the Florida keys when I was doing oceanography on Big Pine Key.
 
I've seen them further south as well. But we're in Northern Florida...Ponte Vedra Beach...and this guy was less than 50' off shore. The most excitement we usually get is smallish nurse sharks.
 
We caught a ~ 12' wide one last year Offshore fishing for Swordfish. It sucked, like pulling a barn door up from the bottom. We had our drag locked down and it would still take line at will. Ended up cutting the line. Cool creature, but definitely don't want another one at the end of my line!
 
You see a goodly number of those big boys in Isla Mujeres along with whale sharks. The simple answer as to why he was there is probably food and lots of it. The first time you see the wing tips of a big one sticking up out of the water like that, the first reaction is often SHARK.....and a damn BIG one!!!!!!! The shape of the wingtips can look disturbingly like the dorsal and tail fins of something like a BIG hammerhead when seen from the wrong angle.:bigeek::D
 
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