Diario del proyecto Australasian Fishes

Archivos de Diario para junio 2017

02 de junio de 2017

Breeding time!

Ken Flanagan has confirmed the breeding time of Eastern Shovelnose Stingarees in PPB.
These two images show female Eastern Shovelnose Stingarees, Trygonoptera imitata at Brighton, Port Phillip Bay, Victoria. The photo on the left, which was taken on 6 April 2017 shows a fish that is not pregnant, the fish in the image on the right (photo taken on 3 February 2017) is clearly pregnant.
Clinton Duffy examined many observations of the species and made the following comments, "I haven't gone through all of the images but this gives you an idea of what's there; pregnant females apparent from December to early March; the mature males appear to turn up after the first pregnant females presumably to mate with them as soon as they are post-partum; I have included links to some of Ken's observations of what appear to be very small, possibly neonate, rays but that probably needs a closer look to confirm. Many of the pregnant rays appear to be associated with cover or rocky substrate but I'm not sure if that's a real association or not."
Last et al, 2009 state that, "Litters of up to 7 pups born annually in February or March ; pupping normally occurs in sheltered waters".
Thank you Ken, Sascha Schulz and Markus Stone for your observations and Clinton Duffy for your analysis.
Reference:
Last, P.R, G.K. Yearsley & W.T. White, Stingarees Family Urolophidae in Last et. al., 2017. Rays of the World. CSIRO Publishing. pp 790.
Publicado el 02 de junio de 2017 a las 04:25 AM por markmcg markmcg | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

20 de junio de 2017

White Shark bite

Thank you to Derrick Cruz for submitting this amazing observation.
The images show a wounded Eastern Shovelnose Ray, Aptychotrema rostrata, off Yacaaba Head, Hawks Nest, New South Wales.
Our colleague and shark expert Clinton Duffy from the New Zealand Department of Conservation confirmed that the wounds are the result of a bite from a White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias.
Derrick stated that "The ray was still alive and only removed from the water for a quick inspection and photo then released."
The Eastern Shovelnose Ray is an Australian endemic species that is known from marine waters of Queensland and New South Wales.
View the Australasian Fishes image gallery for the species. More information about the Eastern Shovelnose Ray be found on the Australian Museum's species fact sheet.
Publicado el 20 de junio de 2017 a las 03:57 AM por markmcg markmcg | 7 comentarios | Deja un comentario