When I arrived in Eleuthera, I was delighted to learn that my Gap Year cohort would be given the opportunity to conduct research on two species, Hypanus americanus and Styracura schmardae, which are commonly known as stingrays. While the research is in the process of being officially published (and I will share when it's ready), I thought I would share a part of my experience conducting research with Cape Eleuthera Institute.
The two species of stingrays I mentioned before are more commonly known as the Southern Stingray and the Caribbean Whiptail Stingray, respectively. The Southern Stingray can be physically described as rhomboid disk shape, deep ventral tail fin fold, and the smooth and soft skin texture. The Caribbean Whiptail Stingray has an oval disk shape, tail with no fin folds, and rough and coarse skin texture. This research has also proved the heavy population of Caribbean Whiptail Stingray, which was thought to be nonexistent or scarce in the Bahamas.
Southern Stingray
Caribbean Whiptail Stingray
So this may sound surprising, but the research wasn't all about the stingrays! What we were searching for was epibionts, which are organisms that live on the surface of other organisms. Since little is known about stingrays in general, the data of the presence or lack of epibionts are equally useful information.
In order to conduct this research, we would go out in teams and search for stingrays in a line formation in creeks and occasionally open shallow water. Once a stingray was spotted, we would form a U shape and attempt to fence in the stingray by tricking it into a long net (as shown below). The two researchers holding the ends of the net would close the ends, and another pair of researchers would use large circular nets, called dip nets, transfer the stingray to water shallow enough to study it.
We then would measure the stingray and check for epibionts. I'm not going to reveal too much until the research is officially published, however I will saw we didn't find many epibionts in the time we were there researching. We only saw one on a stingray we saw repeatedly and had a shark bite. Further details to be revealed in the published version.
*All research was conducted under a professional research license and the research team was trained beforehand. Do not attempt to catch stingrays for sport or interact with them in the wild.
That's all I have to say!
x Emma
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