WATCH: Bat Rays Found in Monterey Bay

KSBW ^

[nickcarraway]

Did someone send out a bat signal? Graceful bat rays have been spotted by divers all along Monterey's coast recently.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium writes, "Bat rays swim gracefully by flapping their batlike wings (pectoral fins) bird style. They are found in muddy and sandy bottom bays, kelp forests and close to coral reefs. If disturbed while resting on the seafloor, bat rays raise themselves up on the tips of their pectoral fins with their backs arched, ready to swim away if a diver approaches too closely. Rays are known for their ability to jump out of the water and skim along the surface. Bat ray teeth are fused into plates that can crush the strongest clam shells. "

[nickcarraway]

WATCH: Bat rays found in Monterey Bay

[blackdog]

For a few months out of each year the giant rays migrate for some reason off the coast of Florida. I can see them from my plane. Sometimes there are hundreds of them flying along just under the surface. They have to have a wingspan of fifteen to 20 feet to stand out at 5,000 feet above. Very cool creatures.

[Jeff Chandler]

When you come upon a big one unexpectedly, first you startle it, then it startles you as it rises from its camouflage in the sand.

Time to rinse out your wet suit, LOL!

[Robert DeLong]

Since bat rays are supposedly limited to the West Coast Pacific waters between Oregon & the Gulf of California, and also the Galápagos Islands, I'm wondering if what you are seeing are not really Manta rays. Their "wings" can span up to 23 feet in length. The furthest from the equator they have been recorded is North Carolina in the United States.

[Hardastarboard]

I will make an exception to my tagline for that video. Thanks

[tet68]

“I didn’t tell him about the Manta Bats,
I figured he’d see them himself soon enough.”

“It’s ok kid, we’re not like the others.”

[blackdog]

Sounds like that would be them. Enormous things and they seem to be in mile wide formation always swimming parallel to the coastline and about 3 miles offshore. I only see them headed north from south. I have never seen them going south.

[IndispensableDestiny]

Last I checked, Monterey Bay is among the “West Coast Pacific waters between Oregon & the Gulf of California.”

[Robert DeLong]

Yeah, and he was talking about seeing them off the coast of Florida. I suggested he might have been seeing Manta Rays, not Bat Rays which are seen from Oregon-California & the Galapagos Islands. Manta Rays are what inhabit areas off of Florida up to North Carolina area in the Atlantic Ocean.