iStockphoto / Kevin Thirion
Boaters in Florida saved the day when a rare spotted eagle ray, arguably the most beautiful of all the ray species in Florida, leapt from the water underneath the Sanibel Causeway and got stuck on the concrete base underneath the bridge.
The massive spotted eagle ray was flopping around unable to free itself after jumping from the water and getting stuck on the base of the bridge. But a man named Parker Carwile was fishing with his friends near the bridge and they were able to act fast while also capturing footage of the bizarre incident.
TO THE RESCUE🚢 Florida boaters came to the rescue after a spotted eagle ray jumped out of the water and got stuck on a concrete embankment under a causeway last week https://t.co/52uWNjMoBI pic.twitter.com/YX7BEYRZly
— WFLA NEWS (@WFLA) March 19, 2024
Using a pole, the crew was able to wedge the massive spotted eagle ray off the ledge. These gorgeous rays can grow up to nearly 11-feet wide and over 16-feet long. They get HUGE. And the first time I ever saw them in the wild was coincidentally right by the Sanibel Causeway when I was paragliding on a staycation with family as a kid.
While this incident was wild, it doesn’t top two years ago when a 5ft spotted eagle ray jumped into a boat and gave birth during the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo off Dauphin Island, Alabama.
Southwest Florida’s NBC2 News picked up the story as well:
Spotted eagle rays are classified as a ‘near threatened species’ according to IUCN. The population in Bermuda, however, is classified as ‘slightly more endangered.’
While it’s not terribly uncommon to see these in Florida if you spend every day on the water they are still quite a rare sight to see for people who aren’t fishing 6 days a week.
It is unclear how much the spotted eagle ray rescued from the Sanibel Causeway weighed but as a species, they can get huge. These rays grow up to 500+ pounds which also makes them a formidable meal for great hammerhead sharks, a species that is popular in Southwest Florida in Spring through early Summer due to the annual tarpon migration.
Interestingly, these spotted eagle rays are almost never found deeper than 200 feet but they do dive down to feed on octopuses, fish, shrimp, and other crustaceans. From far away, they often spook kayakers into thinking they’re large sharks when they swim in the surface because the tips of their ‘wings’ poke out of the water like shark fins.