That time a Sting Ray tried to eat me…

Saturday 16th January, 2021

January isn’t disappointing with epic conditions continuing in South East Queensland. The South Easterly winds have brought in great visibility.

We completed a long dive at Manta Bommie, Stradbroke Island today with 30 metres visibility. There was a medium current to begin with which calmed down nearer the end of our dive. It was just annoying enough in the beginning to require a hand free to hold onto something or pull yourself along the bottom.

We saw about 7-8 different Manta Rays, Mark captured an amazing encounter of a Bamboo shark attacking an Octopus and it shooting Ink in to the water. Very cool indeed. Turtles, Flute fish, lots of Damselfish that like biting me whilst I’m trying to film something, a fever of small Eagle Rays hanging in the current, Barracuda, Pink Whiprays and a ton of Guitar Sharks.

I decided to do the drift down Shark highway, the current wasn’t as strong as the last time we did it but was strong enough. The Guitar sharks were a lot less skittish even with us approaching them from the front so we were able to get fairly close to them. When we drifted for the second time the current had calmed down slightly so we were also able to get into better positions to film and hang on amongst them.

A Large Sting Ray approached me. Usually when they do this they stop in front of me so as not to collide with me. They can be pretty intimidating when they want to, but I’ve spent a lot of time with them over the years and they are cool dudes if you act chill. This time the Ray covered my camera and head. I think it was trying to see if it could eat me! Then it soon realised I was way too big to fit in its mouth and swam away. In the video you can see how close it was, and see its mouth opening! Eek.

Near the end of our dive we were heading back to the boat when I spotted a Blotched Fantail Ray that had been entangled in fishing line on its barb and also looked as though it had swallowed a hook and line. We didn’t have a cutting device on us so Nick went up to the boat and grabbed Ken’s knife. Whilst he did this I lay beside it working out how best to help it. Its barb was upright indicating that it may have felt threatened or was feeling the line. The line was tangled tightly around the barb twice and then looped loosely around the tail.

There was no way we were going to be able to remove it as the line looked like it was cutting into its skin and it would have been dangerous. Once Nick got the knife I just used it to cut the loop so that it didn’t catch on anything else or become entangled in its tail as well. I’ve since reported the footage to Seaworld Rescue as they may have the appropriate tools and capability to help it if it can be located again. Below map c/o Unidive Plea I have marked a pink X where it was hanging around.