Eat a Ray - Save the Bay?

Let's Wait Just a Minute

Those who ignore history are bound to repeat it.

By Dr. Drew Ferrier

The Chesapeake Bay has its problems, but one of them is not the lack of Atlantic cownose rays. Rays spend the summer months in the Bay and can be seen frequently feeding in the shallows or swimming near the water's surface from the Choptank River to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. There are likely 100's of thousands - perhaps millions - of them. Many people consider them a nuisance: a major predator on commercially important shellfish; an important destroyer of sea grass beds; or a common hidden threat ready to inflict a painful sting on unsuspecting human waders. Is this all true? Are rays detrimental to the Bay? Must we control their numbers?

Do we have all the information we need to answer these questions or are we working largely from anecdotal findings?

In the minds of many Bay stakeholders rays are bad news. They feel that their numbers need controlled, and perhaps they can turn a profit at the same time. Some commercial fishers have adopted the slogan "Eat a Ray - Save the Bay". It is too soon to know whether a commercial fishery for Atlantic cownose rays can be established either regionally or perhaps internationally. However, the time is ripe for us to begin to understand more about the biology and ecology of these animals in the Bay. We believe that comprehensive empirical evidence is lacking to support many ideas about the role and impact of rays in the Bay. However, even in the absence of data, assumptions about the negative impacts of rays continue to be made.

The prudent approach to this issue is to learn more about the role of cownose rays in the Bay so that we can make measured judgments about the significance of their impacts and the degree to which their population may need to be controlled. The history of Bay fisheries is littered with declining and over-harvested species that have received little attention until their populations were in dire straits: Atlantic sturgeon, oysters, shad, and river herring to name a few. We are currently spending a lot of time and effort to restore these populations. Why not take a proactive approach to nascent fisheries as commercial fisheries search for the next exploitable "crop" from the Bay?

At the most recent conference of the American Elasmobranch Society in July, a resolution was passed that "urges Atlantic states where cownose rays are being landed, particularly Virginia and Maryland, to immediately impose precautionary cownose ray catch limits and initiate development of a population assessment and science-based interstate management plan, as a matter of priority." The Society for Ocean Sciences strongly endorses this resolution. Let's learn from past management mistakes.