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Description:   This is a beautiful graceful ray with a diamond-shaped disc, approximately 1.2 times as broad as it is long, is more angular than most rays.  It is formed by flattened pectoral fins that extend anterior to the head and posterior to the pelvic region.  While lying on the seabed the stingray is able to take in water dorsally when the head, containing spiracles, is elevated.

The rounded tail is anterior to the spine, the flattened part is posterior to the spine.  The dorsal tail fold is barely developed while the ventral fold is highly developed.   The tail is often twice as long as the body when measuring from cloaca to the tip of the snout with the ventral fold originating directly below the tail spine and extending posteriorly almost to the tip of the tail. The tail spine length is the same as the distance between the eye orbits.  The slightly flattened rounded spine, extending from the back to the front, has 52 to 80 teeth on each side.

The dorsal color is between green, dark-gray and brown with the color darkening around the head.  The ventral color is mostly white.

The Southern stingray has relatively uniform sized teeth in multiple rows except for the smaller teeth near the corners of the mouth.  The teeth of the females and the immature males are tetragonal with rounded corners.  The mature male stingray has low cone shaped cusps.


  
Similar Fish:    The Caribbean stingray but has an oval disc. The pelagic stingray, and freshwater rays.

Where Found:   The Southern stingray is found in both tropical and subtropical waters in the Caribbean, Gulf-of-Mexico and the southern Atlantic Ocean with the heaviest population near Florida and the Bahamas.   This stingray is never comfortable trying to feed around structures or walls as it is a bottom feeder. They prefer shallow open areas of sand and mud bottom, commonly in bays, sea grass beds, clear lagoons, reef faces and estuaries. They are known to dwell in depths down to at least 82 feet.  They travel alone, in pairs and sometimes in large aggregations.

Size:     The Southern stingray's average maximum width is 79 inches and will weigh up to 214 lbs.

World Record:   The maximum recorded weight of this species is 300 pounds (135.6 kg).

Bait used:      Rays may be caught on a fishing line using small crabs as bait, and are often caught accidentally; they may also be speared from above.

Tactics to catch:    Generally caught as by-catch when bottom fishing for other species of fish or sharks. They can be caught simply by jigging with some bait and a hook right off the bottom of sea grass beds or other shallow sandy areas. 

Climate   (water temperature range):      82 to 90 F

Spawning habits:   The female Southern stingray will mature when she reaches a disc width between 29 1/2 to 31 1/2 inches.  The male Southern stingray becomes sexually active at a 20 inch disc width.  The male follows the female closely for some time, probably due to the pheromone perfume emitted by sexually willing females.  The male bites the female's pectoral disc before overlapping the female (his back to her belly) and inserts one of his claspers into her vent.  This insertion may last five to twenty minutes.  The female's reproductive cycle is suspected as being bi-annually.  The embryo lives on a yolk sac during early development, followed by uterine milk secretions.  Gestation lasts anywhere from four to eleven months with a littler of two to ten pups with long slender tails and broad wing-like pectoral fins (the average is four pups). These pups will remain in estuary waters for several years hiding among mangrove roots.

Table food?    They are edible. Small rays may be cooked similarly to other fish, typically grilled or battered and fried. Stingray recipes abound throughout the world, with dried forms of the wings being most common. Charcoal grilled ray is popular in Malaysia. Generally, the most prized parts of the stingray are the wings, the "cheek" (the area surrounding the eyes) and the liver. The rest of the ray is considered too rubbery to have any culinary uses. In Iceland, eating pickled stingray ("kæst skata") on December 23 is an old family tradition. 

Consumption Concerns:    Insufficient data but not recommended for consumption more than three times a month.

Feeding habits:     The Southern stingray eats constantly day and night.  It prefers crustaceans (sea animals with hard outer shells), epibenthic (organisms living on top of the sea floor), stomatopods (crustaceans having strong, clasping claws on the second pair of legs and gills on the abdominal appendages), mollusks (soft bodied animals such as snails, clams, sea slugs etc.) and annelids (segmented worms and leeches).  As it slowly grazes along the sandy ocean bottom using it's electro-reception and intense sense of smell and touch. They flap their wings to move the sand exposing invertebrates and small fish. The rays face into the current to prevent sediment to get into their mouths while eating.

Remarks:    The Southern stingray has a symbiotic relationship with cleaner bluehead wrasses and Spanish hogfish.  they hang out at the cleaning stations as long as one to twenty-six minutes at a time
The venom from the tail spine is being researched by biomedical and neurobiological industries for future use. 

The stingray spines are used in making spears, knives and other tools that man finds useful.

The Southern stingray lies resting while covered with sand leaving only it's eyes exposed.  If a natural predator threatens the Southern stingray it will use it's tail bard to whip like that of a scorpion and sting it's predator. The sting consists of a blade-like barb with serrations along both edges and a venom gland at the base. The venom is a fairly powerful nerve toxin which affects the heart in complex and dangerous ways. But like most fish toxins, stingray venom is a large protein that can be broken down by heat. First aid should begin with immersion of the wound in hot water (110 to 113° F). The wound should then be cleaned with soap and water removing any broken bits of stingray spine. It is best to leave the wound open and begin taking antibiotics to prevent infection.

References:
graysreef.noaa.gov
Florida Museum of Natural History
Reef Briefs
Tampa Estuary Program
Elasmodiver.com
marinebio.com
mbayaq.org
elasmo-research.org
wikipedia
reefnews.com
hookedondestin.com/KnowYourFish.asp