Just minutes into my dive today I encountered a Thornback Ray at about 20 feet depth. I swam right up to it and it did not react with its usual slow swimming. He was about 2 feet in length and slightly buried in the sand. Here is a photo of a different Thornback ray I saw at Refugio a few months back.
I reached out a touched his tail and he wiggled a bit but still did not swim away. I touched a little further up on his tail this time and still he did not swim away. Finally, I gently grabbed on the end of this tail and he swam about 1 foot and abruptly stopped. I could see he was trying to get away but was stuck in some fishing line. I thought his tail was tangled up but as I reached up to untangle him I saw that he had a hook in this mouth. There were no fishermen ashore so I knew he had been caught in an abandoned line. I grabbed hold of the line and attempted to surface but could not. The line was stuck on something. I grabbed hold and tugged and was able to snap the line about a foot from where it was attached to the ray's mouth. I surfaced and swam to shore.
I yelled to Shelley, who was reading in the van, to bring me one of the tupperware bins I store my wet gear in. I filled the bin with water and placed the ray in it.
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I removed my gloves (I don't think thornback's have stingers) and slowly attempted to remove the hook.
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Luckily, the hook only had a small barb so I was able to get it out without hurting the ray to much more.
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After a short examination (the ray's normally white bottom now has a rust stain from where the hook was) and a hug it was time to release the Thornback Ray back into his water.
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I took the ray back out to the ocean and released him. He happy swam off, free for the first time in days.
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