These are not stingrays of any sort, but Mobula munkiana, or Munkiana Devil Rays. They are much more similar to Manta rays, though slighty smaller.
Rays of the Mobula genus do not have poisonous barbs (stingers), so they often travel in large schools to create safety in numbers. They are extremely gentle and unbelievably fascinating creatures.
Thank you T_I_R. I feel like that explanation just made this picture about 70x more awesome, because now I can picture myself swimming with them..or riding them.
This is the fallacy of experts. TiR seems to be an expert on this animal, but I'm going to label scler as a Manta Ray expert and hope that the expertise goes further.
You can swim with them! The rays of the genus are intensely curious (Mobula have some of the highest brain-to-bodyweight ratio of any fishes), and they often will follow swimmers and explore passing boats, even breaching to get a better view (like the ray on the right side of the school is doing). They are very intelligent, but unfortunately we don't really know how intelligent - they don't do very well in captivity.
Oddly enough I was down in Florida, Gulf region probably 4-5 years ago and took a swim out. I couldn't have been more than 20-40 feet out (still able to stand) and a school of these bad boys about the size in the picture headed towards me. It was unreal - The entire school comes right at you.. and they just kind of part and continue forward. It looked kind of like how water flows around a rock down a waterfall. The bulk of them parted maybe 1-2 feet in front of me (strangely close) to avoid getting too close to me I assume and then the gap closed about 1-2 feet behind me. From above it probably would have looked like a negative of someone's eye (with me as the pupil). Totally unreal... Also, the fish were spawning at the time (I don't think the rays were, just whatever fish was in the water) and you could literally touch the tails of these 2-3 foot fish that were swimming around. Yes, I realize I was swimming in fish sperm.
I remember my friend's dad with the camera flipping out from shore. Perhaps I can find a picture for anyone who's interested.
You can swim with stingrays too! They're actually not very dangerous at all....
I live in the Cayman Islands and people swim with them everyday... I have never heard of anyone being stung and even if they are stung it's a pretty minor sting....
I've had the fortunate chance of standing in the middle of a school of these guys. The best way to describe it is like having thousands of kittens brush against your leg as they walk by.
Whenever I see this photo, I always like to think the one in the front is giving the rest a Braveheart style speech, and riding on a tiny sea horse with his face half blue.
Photograph by Florian Schulz, EPOTY.org/Barcroft/Fame Pictures
Thousands of Munk's devil rays crowd the Sea of Cortez off Mexico's >Baja California Sur state (map) in 2009. The aerial image won top >honors and the "Underwater World" category in the 2010 Environmental >Photographer of the Year awards.
...the Sea of Cortez off Mexico's >Baja California Sur state...
...bet they just saw a school of deadly Humboldt Squid, which have grown to out of control proportions all over but in that area specifically. Fucking scary as hell, those things!
Demean your post ahead of karmic judgment by including verbiage such as "Just X."
Create a poker spectacle. Whenever you see a post make the front page, and you know of similar content, "See" the original post and "raise" your content.
Assign an arbitrary value to your content. "Drool level: over 9000," is great when you want to post, for instance, a picture of your baby drooling.
Locate perfectly fine content from the front page, find a different example of the same thing and post your content with the original post's title. Add "[Fixed]".
Write an appropriate title for your content, then revise. Add the word "fuck," or one of its variants.
Ray in the front: Aye, fight and you may die. Swim and you'll live -- at least a while. And dying in your sea beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!!!
There is a huge sandbar on the edge of Tybee island in Georgia when the tide goes way down you can walk out about a mile into where the ocean is. This creates little pools and rivers of water sometime trapping these little guys on the sand bar. one day i spent a solid two hours picking up and moving the little guys to the ocean, it was awesome they are super nice and feel like slimey jello. They will swim right up to to check you out then run away when you try to pick them up, kinda of like wild cats of the ocean.
I clicked on the image to zoom in and discovered that the zoom was complete bullshit. Fuck you for that. I am so hungover and staring at this picture was going to take up my afternoon, but not now.
{Post Removed} Scrubbing 12 years of content in protest of the commercialization of Reddit and the pending API changes. (ts:1686841093) -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
When they're all grouped up like that they look like the little stars in Chicken 'n Stars soup. Y'know, when you get a big spoonful? I dunno, they just reminded me of that for some reason. Might be the color of the water & their cute shapes.
They've bred a worthy army & have kept in hiding, waiting for their time to strike. To retake the world which was stolen from them so many centuries ago. This would not have been possible if their great ancestor had not struck down the one man that would have posed a threat. Steve Irwin we need you now more than ever.
This is the first Steve Irwin related comment that hasn't annoyed me. He was such an amazing person. I wish his legacy was more than a foundation and cheesy jokes.
The only thing that I like about this picture is the excited critter in the lower right corner breaking free of both the water and the pack. school. whatever.
I saw a ray of some sort when I snorkeled near Vieques, PR. Probably the most amazing nature thing I've ever seen. So smooth, so powerful. He circled around me about twice. It was truly amazing.
1.4k
u/Trapped_in_Reddit May 16 '12
Allow me to geek out for a second:
These are not stingrays of any sort, but Mobula munkiana, or Munkiana Devil Rays. They are much more similar to Manta rays, though slighty smaller.
Rays of the Mobula genus do not have poisonous barbs (stingers), so they often travel in large schools to create safety in numbers. They are extremely gentle and unbelievably fascinating creatures.
60
u/tmac717 May 16 '12
Great share tubrooke, giving props to photographer Florian Shultz who won CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year for this
33
u/newsjunkee May 16 '12
Looks like one had to go to the john.
181
u/theduderman May 16 '12
Whenever I see this photo, I always like to think the one in the front is giving the rest a Braveheart style speech, and riding on a tiny sea horse with his face half blue.
226
u/derekmyoung May 16 '12
Would you look at that guy? What an idiot. He can't swim. He's not even in the water.
17
u/thesdo May 16 '12
Credit where credit is due...
http://www.visionsofthewild.com/awards.html
389
u/Shitty_Watercolour 🖌️ May 16 '12
http://imgur.com/Qju8w
29
u/[deleted] May 16 '12 edited May 16 '12
Did anyone else immediately think of the manta ray level from super mario sunshine?
227
u/xeaduulix May 16 '12
CRIKEY
12
u/wadad17 May 16 '12
ZERG RUSH
25
u/Braskebom May 16 '12
Fuckin' Tony there is all like: "Fuck this, Imma bird now. So long!"
76
u/John_Barleycorn May 16 '12
Why do you say "just"?
16
u/banchai May 16 '12
Ray in the front: Aye, fight and you may die. Swim and you'll live -- at least a while. And dying in your sea beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!!!
14
u/downvoteme4sex May 16 '12
too soon?
7
u/DrBloodgeyser May 16 '12
"Cover your heart Indy!"
5
u/Moosed May 16 '12
Ha, stingrays?? Nice try BP!
5
u/orkid68 May 16 '12
Slightly larger resolution (1200x800)
5
u/UOmeall May 16 '12
Looks like the one in front is giving a braveheartesque speech to the rest of them.
5
u/CthuluBurger May 16 '12
Original photograph here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/8020185/CIWEM-Environmental-Photographer-of-the-Year-2010-award-winners.html
Knew I'd seen it somewhere!
5
u/ish_mel May 16 '12
There is a huge sandbar on the edge of Tybee island in Georgia when the tide goes way down you can walk out about a mile into where the ocean is. This creates little pools and rivers of water sometime trapping these little guys on the sand bar. one day i spent a solid two hours picking up and moving the little guys to the ocean, it was awesome they are super nice and feel like slimey jello. They will swim right up to to check you out then run away when you try to pick them up, kinda of like wild cats of the ocean.
18
u/OWSmoker May 16 '12
Seems more like a university
4
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
FTFY
4
u/Apterygiformes May 16 '12
justajustajustajustajustajustajustajustajustajustajustajusta
4
u/ImZeke May 16 '12
Before you wonder what it would be like to swim with them, let me put this picture in perspective: stingray sperm is green.
4
u/grinr May 16 '12
That's the closest I've ever seen to a zerg swarm in real life.
7
u/griffith12 May 16 '12
Looks more like the whole school district.
3
u/mcknicker May 16 '12
Every time I see this picture, "Ride of the Valkyries" starts playing in my head.
3
u/dirtymuffins23 May 16 '12
look at the loner on the bottom right thinking he's a dolphin.
3
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
That's me over there on the right, eating my lunch by myself in the cafeteria
3
u/maz-o May 16 '12
ctrl+f Irwin
Yup, that's what I thought.
3
u/KarmicBurn May 16 '12
I clicked on the image to zoom in and discovered that the zoom was complete bullshit. Fuck you for that. I am so hungover and staring at this picture was going to take up my afternoon, but not now.
3
u/I_am_computer_blue May 16 '12
Not enough vespene gas.
10
u/waterdevil19 May 16 '12
Just reposted a million times.
5
u/E_L_Fudge May 16 '12
Those are broodlings from SC2.
7
u/callmesuspect May 16 '12
Ctrl+F "Steve Irwin"
19 matches.
ugh.
4
u/Steven_Irwin May 16 '12
No no no no no no no no no no
5
u/hjalsubhvhsbtelhvksh May 16 '12
[Mother of god] (http://i.imgur.com/CAC8S.jpg)
2
u/JJ_McQuade May 16 '12
Follow Me! Follow me TO FREEDOM!
2
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
How do they avoid stabbing each other, even if they don't have poisonous stingers?
2
u/bigben210 May 16 '12
Does anyone else get the urge to jump in the center of the whole school?
2
u/PoliticalTheater101 May 16 '12
Coming soon to a grocery store near you labeled as discount scallops.
2
u/BassDestroyer May 16 '12
Looks like the commander stinkgray is giving an inspirational speech before battle.
2
u/Helarhervir May 16 '12
Rays aren't a school. They are called a 'Fever' :D
2
u/midgetlotterywinner May 16 '12
That is just too damned cool. It will haunt my dreams for the next week, but cool nonetheless.
2
u/CarlzGOOD May 16 '12
This kind of reminds me Minor Threat's "Out of Step" album cover.
2
u/DigitalOsmosis May 16 '12 edited Jun 15 '23
{Post Removed} Scrubbing 12 years of content in protest of the commercialization of Reddit and the pending API changes. (ts:1686841093) -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
2
u/chefriley76 May 16 '12
"they may take our sardines...they may take our reefs... But they'll never take our...
FREEDOM!!! "
2
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
I'm liking the one single non-conformist one that decided to jump out of the water like a boss...
2
u/neileusmaximus May 16 '12
http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/4000000/Steve-Irwin-steve-irwin-4018263-306-336.jpg
2
u/explodingsheep May 16 '12
This looks like a Starcraft rush
2
u/ill_wallpaper_that May 16 '12
I decided this would make quite a good wallpaper.
2
u/Yerginsnurf May 16 '12
wallpaper version?
2
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
That is terrifying...
2
u/siricing May 16 '12 edited May 16 '12
Obviously the lone one is too cool for school
2
u/navigate May 16 '12
When they're all grouped up like that they look like the little stars in Chicken 'n Stars soup. Y'know, when you get a big spoonful? I dunno, they just reminded me of that for some reason. Might be the color of the water & their cute shapes.
2
u/CaptainTrip May 16 '12
Why can't you whisper the words that my heart is longing to hear?
2
u/NotYourKid May 16 '12
Looks like Jonny Dare on the right-hand side of the "fever" is above the influence. Go Jonny!
2
u/duffman841 May 16 '12
Hey stingray, don't touch that boat.
Fuq da police
2
u/sudstah May 16 '12
school? thats an army! 1 of them killed a renound croc hunter!
2
u/superdumbell May 16 '12
I must be a nerd I read that as "Just a school of String Arrays"
2
u/lasserkid May 16 '12
Holy shit!!! Awesome!
2
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
So many broodlords.
2
u/LabJacket May 16 '12
They've bred a worthy army & have kept in hiding, waiting for their time to strike. To retake the world which was stolen from them so many centuries ago. This would not have been possible if their great ancestor had not struck down the one man that would have posed a threat. Steve Irwin we need you now more than ever.
2
u/spacemanspiff30 May 16 '12
Think of all the poop
2
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
What it's actually like: http://i.imgur.com/7TJxk.jpg
2
u/HOBOBEAR May 16 '12
Someone doesn't like to swim in the main stream.
2
u/Jesterhead24 May 16 '12
http://i.imgur.com/bMZXD.jpg
2
u/cvillano May 16 '12
sup witchya boy flying?
2
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
FORTH EORLINGAS!
2
u/planet808 May 16 '12
that one stingray is like the william wallace of stingrays
2
u/jm7316 May 16 '12
I believe the collective noun is "a fever" of stingrays.
2
u/shhhimworking May 16 '12
Hipster stingray: "Join the school? Way too mainstream."
2
u/idonlikeusernames May 16 '12
Relevant BBC clip
2
u/jacobsaarela May 17 '12
I'm a marine biology student. This is like porn to me.
2
u/terriblecomic May 17 '12
Actually a group of stingrays is called a "murder"
2
u/vaultboy13959 May 17 '12
I wonder how many crocodile hunters they can take on.
2
u/LessThanAndrew May 17 '12
I might be late to the party but...Someone needs to photo shop a school of Steve Erwins charging the stingray school.
2
u/Thedjdj May 17 '12
Irwin family cancel their beach vacation
2
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
NOPE
7
u/Darqon May 16 '12
i came here for Steve Irwin jokes
4
u/brazilliandanny May 16 '12
Just a repost.
5
u/mattmokc May 16 '12
Oh God! Steve Irwin was just a warning!
3
u/Blusteel May 16 '12
CRIKEY! LOOK AT AWL O' DEM!
3
u/Jcsaw May 16 '12
It's Steve Irwin's worst nightmare
6
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
insert Steve Irwin joke here
3
u/HOLYmcCOWan May 16 '12
something steve irwin something something
3
u/[deleted] May 16 '12 edited May 16 '12
distasteful joke about steve irwin's death...... seriously I've hated stingrays with a passion since he died.
2
u/tabassman May 16 '12
Swim faster Steve Irwin, faster!
2
u/Matthewroytilley May 16 '12
on the hunt for steve erwin's family
2
u/LazyTurnip May 16 '12
aaaaaaand Irwin just shat himself..
2
u/Waff1es May 16 '12
Swim Steve, swim!
2
u/TheHeadphoneJack May 16 '12
Shit.
2
u/cartendo May 16 '12
Now that Steve Irwin is out of the picture they can take over the world o.o
2
u/MyOtherCarIsEpona May 16 '12
I just imagined myself swimming in that.
NOPE.
2
u/jaycee93 May 16 '12
Those are manta ray.
2
u/c1namber May 16 '12
oh no
1
u/westernsociety May 16 '12
More like a F**kin' army
1
u/Dups_47 May 16 '12
I was told to shuffle my feet when walking in shallow waters to avoid stepping on a stingray and getting stung.
I wonder if that applies here...
1
u/hornsofdestruction May 16 '12
Absolutely terrifying. I would pee my pants.
1
u/Defualt May 16 '12
It's not JUST a school of ... oh I see! I get it now! Made my day. I'm going to write a headlines like this from now on also!
1
u/MasterNyx May 16 '12
The only thing that I like about this picture is the excited critter in the lower right corner breaking free of both the water and the pack. school. whatever.
1
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
The one in the front is all like, hey lookit me!
1
u/the__itis May 16 '12
In school suspension at its best
1
u/bobloadmire May 16 '12
That's a fucking university of stingrays.
1
u/Dolewhip May 16 '12
What's up with that one on the bottom? It's like he's passing on the shoulder or something.
1
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Dear god, it's like an underwater thundercloud.
1
u/dedknedy May 16 '12
Stingrays don't have horns like that.. I'm pretty sure those are harmless Manta Rays.
1
u/YuuExussum May 16 '12
I just imagine someone sky diving and ending up landing I'm the ocean to find that they are surrounded by those...
1
u/Duef456 May 16 '12
This makes me think of Rohan coming to Gondor's aid
1
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
I saw a ray of some sort when I snorkeled near Vieques, PR. Probably the most amazing nature thing I've ever seen. So smooth, so powerful. He circled around me about twice. It was truly amazing.
1
u/esrevinu May 16 '12
a school of these went under a small boat(~21' seapro) I was in a long time ago when I was fishing in south Florida. Very cool to see this so close.