A crew of Connecticut Fish and Wildlife workers made waves in Long Island Sound by trawling up a 400-pound roughtail stingray, which measured over 6 feet long and 5 feet wide.
Roughtail stingrays can be found along the Atlantic coastline, but are rare in Long Island Sound, CFW said in a post on Facebook. The tidal estuary sits between Connecticut and New York.
“You have to understand these fish know no political boundaries,” David Molnar, a marine and fisheries biologist with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, told the Hartford Courant newspaper.
After measuring the behemoth ray following the catch Wednesday, the crew returned it to the sea.
While the species does have a venomous tail stinger like other rays, it’s not an aggressive species and doesn’t approach shallow areas frequented by humans, officials said.
The crew is part of the state’s Long Island Sound Trawl Survey, which aims to document the volume and variety of marine life in the body of water.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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