Moana Diving Adventures

Feathertail Stingray

Absolutely gorgeous and an amazing surprise on our snorkel at Poivre

1. Other common names include banana-tail ray, cowtail stingray, drab stingray, fantail ray, and frill tailed stingray.

2. Females give birth to live young and have 2 pups which are about 0.18m wide at birth.

3. Their eyes are on top of their bodies, and their mouth, gills, and nostrils are on the underside. Because of this they can’t see their prey, instead they use smell and electroreceptor’s (special gel-filled pits across the front of their face) which allow them to pick up electrical signals from other animals when they move to find food.

4. Diet: consists of bony fish, crustaceans, and molluscs. Juveniles mainly feed on bivalve molluscs.

5. Size: they get up to 2m wide and can weigh up to 10kg.

6. They are brown / grey with a diamond-shaped body and a distinctive feather shape to the tip of their tail.

7. They have large venomous serrated spines behind their pelvic fins.

8. Their lifespan is assumed to be more than 25yrs.

9. They have no bones, their skeleton is made up of flexible cartilage.

10. Their natural predators are sharks, seals, sea lions and other large fish.

11. They are generally found in shallow coastal waters on sandy bottoms or coral reefs up to 60m. They have been known to enter estuaries and rivers meaning they are amphidromous (freshwater and sea).

12. They are classified as threatened due to overfishing, habitat loss and climate change.

Crocodile flathead

Shovelnose Ray / Giant Shovelnose Ray / Giant Guitarfish

Forever my happy place

Cutest friendliest little hawksbill sea turtle 🤍 kept booping my camera

Whitetip reef shark

I always love seeing starfish ⭐️ They are so gorgeous

Forever messing around

Marbled Torpedo Ray / Marbled Electric Ray

1. They can be found anywhere from 10 - 100m deep.

2. They can be found around rocky reefs, seagrass beds and muddy flats.

3. Their lifespan is about 15 - 20 years with females living longer than males.

4. They are ambush predators. They will wait patiently in the dark hours of the night until fish, such as gobies, mackerel or damselfish swim past. Then, they jump on the prey while emitting electrical shocks which instantly stun or kill it.

5. Few other predators dare to hunt electric rays. Some sharks and other large carnivorous fish have been known to confront marbled electric rays.

6. Female marbled electric rays are larger than males, growing to a maximum length 0.6m, while males grow to be 0.4m long.

7. Not much is known about the reproductives of marbled electric rays, but scientists believe that the gestation period lasts up to 10 months and females may release 5 to 32 young.

8. Marbled electric rays can produce up to 200 volts of electric discharge at a time. The charge comes from massive and highly specialised electrogenic organs situated at the base of the pectoral fins.

9. The electric organs are functional before the rays are born and can be used to stun prey the moment they’re born.

10. They are nocturnal, burying themselves during the day and hunting at night.

11. They can swallow fishes larger than the width of their closed mouths by expanding their jaws.

12. Marbled electric rays are also known as torpedo rays because of their scientific name Torpedo marmorata.

Always love a beautiful eel

Moray eel

Longfin Grouper