on a very cloudy day, the visibility was 5 meters max, and the prospects of the dive were grim..
that's when this beautiful ray flew by me and landed 5 meters below on the silty bottom.
It was 1 meter long from wing to wing.
The picture was taken at a depth of 35 meters, so along with the bad visibility and the photographers shock, it came out quite dark.
This Widewing butterfly ray can reach 2 meters wing span, it likes to feed on small fish and molluscs, along sandy or muddy bottoms. It is an ovoviviparous ray and the 4-7 embryos are born all ready equipped with two tail spines.The species has been reported as grunting loudly with the sudden explusion of air while lying on deck after capture :( This animal is so amazingly beautiful and suprisingly strong for its gracefulness, I hope all of you see it alive in the sea and never grunting out air on the surface as it struggles for its life...
This encounter happened in Pilion, at 33m
amazing!!
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