WASHINGTON WTOP— Like migrating birds that return to their nests each year, a new study shows that the cownose ray found in the Chesapeake Bay does something similar, and that could have implications for how states such as Maryland and Virginia manage the ray populations.
If you’ve been to an aquarium, you may have actually touched a cownose ray; they’re often part of “touch tank” displays, where aquarium visitors can see the animals up close.
“They’re a kite-shaped brown ray that has two bumps on the head that look a bit like the nose of a cow, which is how it got its name,” said Matt Ogburn, co-author of the study and a marine ecologist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland.
Overfishing cownose rays could lead to putting them in the endangered list. (Courtesy SERC)
The SERC study tracked a group of 42 rays and found that they take off for Florida in the winter. But, when the weather warms up and it’s time to raise a family, the rays, which travel in large schools, return to the areas of the Chesapeake Bay where they were born.
Ogburn said there hasn’t been a lot of research on the cownose ray, but he said, “It’s at least a good possibility that the rays are important to maintaining healthy clam populations.”
He said a Virginia study shows that in areas where the rays feed, there’s a greater diversity in the populations of bivalves — clams and oysters. “There’s a good potential that that’s important to the way the bay functions when it’s healthy,” Ogburn said.
Watermen complain that the rays, which travel in large groups, can devour an oyster bed — and the watermen’s investment — in no time.
In Maryland, the rays have been targeted in fishing tournaments, but in 2017, the General Assembly passed legislation that instituted a moratorium while the state studies the issue.
He added that rays don’t begin to breed until they are almost 6 years old; pregnancy in females lasts nearly 12 months. And, when they do have their young, they have a single pup at a time.
Ogburn said that overfishing could push them into endangered status. And, if research shows that the rays play a critical role in the health of the bay, the effects could go beyond cutting the ray population.
“We’re really just trying to answer the question, ‘What’s the right scale to manage the species?’” Ogburn said.
Talk about a solution to a non-existent problem. There is no market and hence no fishery for cownose rays, much to the chagrin of clam farmers, pound netters, cobia fishermen, etc.
VIMS and VMRC have on multiple occasions tried to develop markets and a fishery for them, without success. I’ve even tried smoked cownose ray when I sat on a VMRC/VIMS Sea Grant sponsored committee trying to create a market for it. It was AWFUL!
Sure, if a fishery was promoted for them and actually pursued it could have significant negative repercussions, like happened when NMFS promoted fisheries for sharks, with similar life histories, but at the moment cownose rays are in no trouble – everyone throws them back unharmed as unwanted bycatch.
Sounds like someone looking for govt money to study a problem that doesn’t exist.