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Torpedo Ray spotted on half day snorkel trip!

18 Sep 2010

It was a bright sunny day last week as one of our half day snorkel trips headed towards Tinga Giri for their first snorkel site with our guide Karola.  After snorkeling there and enjoying all the fish life in the shallow waters, they then went on to check out Kudadu, a little further away.

With its beautiful top reef sloping off down to 15-20 metres, the snorkel site Kudadu is located next to a channel, and therefore, besides all the many different kinds of fish usually found living there, always good for a surprise.

This time it was a very pretty little Torpedo Ray – which one of our snorkelers Duncan spotted while his wife Sarah was trying to get his attention to take a picture of some clown fish dancing above their anemone.

Luckily for us Duncan decided to first quickly capture the Torpedo Ray swimming towards the deeper parts of the reef before turning around and photographing the clown fish…

Torpedo Rays have an extremely interesting way of hunting down their prey – with the help of an electrical discharge they immobilise and disorient the fish just prior to their attack.  Some of the species can produce about 200 volts (!) which can also be used to ward off predators; it is also believed it may be used in communication with others of their kind.  Do not touch!

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