Shark at Jonas green?

[jhoss]

Had a nice morning catching croakers a few white perch and the occasional striper. On the way back in about 1/4 mile from the beach I saw a dorsal fin surface, glide along for a minute, and then dive back under. The fin was about 10-12 inches wide and tall. It was about 10-15 feet from the boat. I first thought dolphin-since I grew up in SC where they are common at the beach. I shortly realized that missing was the characteristic puff of air/water dolphins make when breaching the surface. So think twice about dangling your feet overboard next to your stringer of fish like I was doing all morning when you're down there. In 2010 they caught a 6ft bull shark a ways up in the Potomac. Just saying-

[russ498]

Most likely a Cow Nosed ray. The bay is loaded with them now.

[Strummerfan]

I saw a fairly large ray under my kayak yesterday about 50 yards from the JG launch. It was easily 3' across and it's wingtips came up out of the water a couple times. We do on occasion get bull sharks in the severn, but it's not something to be overly concerned about. One thing to keep an eye on with fish on stringers is large snapping turtles. On more than one occasion I've lost fish on stringers to them.

[moc]

Yes, most likely it was a ray. At a distance sometimes you will see one wing tip come out of the water and it will look like a dorsal fin of a shark or dolphin. The odds at this time of year that it was a cow nose ray is high.

[john from md]

+1 on the ray. I had one off of the academy sea wall that kept its wing up long enough that you would have thought it was a shark.

There is also a big turtle in the same area. He surfaced next to my yak two weeks ago and scared the hell out of me. His head was the size of a football! The water was dark brown so I didn't see his shell size. After eyeing each other for a minute, he kicked with a big spash and disappeared.

John

[jhoss]

I can't say I didn't think about the possibility of it being a ray...just didn't know they will trail a wingtip in the water vertically like that. Good to know. Thanks for the input folks

[Meadeo]

The trick is to look for a tail following the fin. If you do not see one it was likely a ray. I have mistaken cownosed rays for sharks in the past from a distance.

On a side note two times this year in the lower Virginia portion of the bay i have had bottle nose dolphins breach within ten feet of my kayak.. Gets the blood pumping pretty good.

Meadeo

[J.A. Veil]

I saw a huge school of rays near the Rt 50 bridge in Ocean City a few weeks ago. I spotted them from a distance because many of them had their wingtips sticking out of the water in a vertical position. I paddled over to check it out and got this photo.

007.jpg

I concur with the others who suggest that the "fin" spotted near Jonas Green was most like a ray wingtip.

[rob-kayak]

Most likely a ray.

Yeah... they were waving at you ! Saying... "I'm back... to swallow up your rigs and piss you off...."
You must not have had your skate whistles attached correctly.

[DOGFISH]

Mermaid tail. I see them all the time.

[camelbird]

cool pic John

[jet]

I saw a huge school of rays near the Rt 50 bridge in Ocean City a few weeks ago. I spotted them from a distance because many of them had their wingtips sticking out of the water in a vertical position. I paddled over to check it out and got this photo.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]7723[/ATTACH]

I concur with the others who suggest that the "fin" spotted near Jonas Green was most like a ray wingtip.

great pic!

[rob-kayak]

Well I was wondering if there was an increase in the Ray population... it may be that more people
are in the Bay and observing there appearance.

I didn't exactly find a recent scientific study stating an increase in the population.. sometimes studies take time
to be confirmed. I think since there is a decrease in the population of other species in the Bay, the Ray's impact
on shellfish may be stronger than years ago.

Some articles in the search were interesting....

Cownose Rays: What Effect Are They Having?
http://chesapeakebay.noaa.gov/fisher...re-they-having000


Misunderstood: The Cownose Ray
http://www.cbf.org/about-the-bay/mor...od-cownose-ray

Virginia appears to be pushing a campaign to eat rays... one article is titled "Chesapeake Ray -- the new veal?"
http://www.virginiaseafood.org/chesray/stories.htm

Although convincing people Rays are the new veal might not work... convincing people Rays are the new Viagra might.

And if you see a Ray doing this..... it might be a mutation from the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...water-air.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...water-air.html

[On the fly]

About three years ago myself and two paddle boarders witnessed a shark tearing up a cow nose ray on the bay side of the Severn river bridge not too far from the fishing pier(old bridge remains) and close to the shoreline. It was in the morning and there were cow nose rays all over the place so I guess it was breakfast for the shark. After the attack we watched the shark swim back toward the bay. You could see the dorsal fin and tail of the shark, they were not side by side like the ray. First time I have ever seen a shark in the Severn river, bull sharks and sandbar sharks are known predators of the cownose ray.

[john from md]

Bull sharks are bad ju ju for people. About two years ago there was one over by Love point and it was a little smaller than my yak. Needless to say, I got the hell out of the water but fast.

John