It comes out of the blue below you, a wide black diamond spotted with white, moving without apparent effort, and passes with a flick of the wings and a long thin tail trailing metres behind.
Where you’ll see it
Over sand and around the rocky headlands and reefs from Coco to the Catalina Islands. Snorkellers see them off Hermosa and Ocotal and divers see them regularly, sometimes in groups.
What to know
Eagle rays hunt clams and crabs in the sand, using the flat snout to dig, and they are often followed by small fish hoping for scraps. They are strong swimmers and sometimes leap clear of the water. They pose no risk to swimmers, being neither aggressive nor inclined to lie buried in the shallows the way stingrays do.
