Longtail stingray

Dasyatis longa is a Stechrochenart and lives in the eastern Pacific between Baja California and Colombia.

Features

Dasyatis longa has a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disk, which is slightly wider than long. It reaches a maximum wheel widths from 1.6 m to 2.6 m in total length and weighing up to 46 kg. The front sides of the disc are straight and meet at the snout obtuse angle. The tail is usually more than twice as long as the disc and carries a sting on the top. In many caught, the tail was shortened due to breakage. The coloring of the disc top varies from reddish brown and dark gray, the underside is bright

Way of life

The Ray lives near the coast on sandy ground and in rocky and coral reefs at depths to 90 m. There he hunts reef and ground-dwelling bony fishes and invertebrates, among the latter in particular mantis shrimp, decapods and molluscs. He is ovoviviparous with litters of one to five pups are born with a slice width of about 40 cm is usually in late summer in shallow water after ten to eleven months gestation period.

The sting of his poison sting can hurt people, kill under certain circumstances. Often he is introduced by coastal fishermen using beam trawls, longlines and gillnets. In Mexico, he is fresh, dried or salted marketed. As the number fished rays present did not differ in the distribution area by species, the conservation status by IUCN with DD (data deficit ) is evaluated.