Marble Rays Mating Off Cocos Island, Costa Rica.

According to Scuba News the Marble Ray has many names, including two scientific ones: Taeniura meyeni and T. melanospilos.

Its common names include Black-spotted stingray, Giant reef ray, Marbled ray, Blotched fantail ray and Round ribbontail ray.

The first thing you notice about the Marble Ray is its great size. It can be 3 m (10 ft) in length and 1.7 m (6 ft) wide. Round in shape it is covered with a dense pattern of black spots. It is not aggressive but you need to be careful of the spines on the tail.

You see the Marble Ray in the Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to southern Japan, Micronesia and tropical Australia; and in the Cocos and Galapagos islands in the Eastern Pacific.

“This incredible footage (below) of mating marble rays was captured by our Cruise Director Federico Pochet during the MV Sea Hunter Trip to Cocos Island from July 26 – August 4th 2012.

After getting their shark fix at legendary Alcyone, Fed led the group to a safety stop and witnessed marble rays gracefully performing their mating ritual. The cameras were rolling, and as you can see, it is nothing short of magic.

This is the first time we have seen the actual mating take place. During the mating season we typically see the marble rays gearing up to mate by displaying courting behavior. They gather in large numbers and follow the female around as if they are performing a rehearsed musical number. To see the actual act itself is quite rare.

Dive Officer Edwar Herreño, believes this is the first time something like this has been seen at Cocos Island, let alone captured on video. Just goes to show anything can and will happen at Cocos!”

You can see the prices for the www.UnderSeaHunter.com scheduled trips to Cocos Island here.

You can see an awesome 360 degree photo tour of Cocos Island by clicking on the >> 360 Virtual Tour button on the left hand column of the Cocos Island trip page here.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.