Document Type
Article
Abstract
At 0935 on November 30, 1978, a male and female roughtail stingray Dasyatis centroura were observed for a period of 10 minutes in an apparent courtship or mating ritual. This observation, using the JOHNSON-SEA-L1NK research submersible (J-S-L1, Dive Number 615), took place near the base of a deep-water, Oculina varicosa coral bank (Reed, 1980) 27 km east of Ft. Pierce, Florida at 27° 32. 8'N, 79° 58.8'W and at a depth of 80 m. The area was a flat sand bottom 20-30 m from the base of the 17 m high Oculina coral bank. A few pieces of limestone with Oculina rubble protruded through the green silty-sand, and patches of the gorgonian Titanideum frauenfeldii and the antipatharian Cirrhipathes desbonii covered the bottom. Visibility was 6-8 m, current 5 ern/sec from the south, and the temperature was 20.4°C. An externally mounted Benthose camera with 200 Ektachrome film and a hand held 35 mm single lens reflex camera were used to record the event. Thirty-five sequential photographs were taken of these rays.
Publication Date
1981
Recommended Citation
The final version of this manuscript is published by http://goms.disl.org/ and may be cited as: Reed, J. K., & Gilmore, R. G. (1981). Inshore occurrence and nuptial behavior of the roughtail stingray Dasyatis centroura (Dasyatidae), on the continental shelf, east central Florida. Northeast Gulf Science, 5(1), 59-62. Florida Atlantic University. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute contribution #241.
Comments
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute contribution #241.