Food Habits and Feeding Behavior of the Cownose Ray, Rhinoptera bonasus, in Lower Chesapeake Bay

Smith, Joseph W.; Merriner, John V.

doi:10.2307/1351491

Cited by 106 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Ackerman et al (2000) reported that leopard sharks move with the tide to forage in intertidal mudflats and then move back out with the ebb tide. Young sandbar sharks Carcharhinus plumbeus (Medved & Marshall 1983, Wetherbee et al 2001, dusky sharks Carcharhinus obscurus (Huish & Benedict 1977), Atlantic stingrays Dasyatis sabina (Teaf 1980), cownose rays Rhinoptera bonasus (Smith & Merriner 1985), spotted eagle rays Aetobatus narinari (Silliman & Gruber 1999), and southern stingrays Dasyatis americana (Gilliam & Sullivan 1993) have all been reported to exhibit tidal movements that are possibly related to foraging. Although very small leopard sharks may occasionally be consumed by larger conspecifics (Ackerman 1971), there are no major predators of leopard sharks in Elkhorn Slough (Yoklavich et al 1991, Carlisle et al 2007).…”

Section: Habitat Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat use, residency, and seasonal distribution of female leopard sharks Triakis semifasciata in Elkhorn Slough, California

Carlisle¹,

Starr²

2009

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Bays and estuaries play important roles in the life history of leopard sharks Triakis semifasciata, yet these coastal environments are among those most impacted by human activity. To better understand habitat use, spatial associations, and ecological roles of leopard sharks in estuarine environments, movements of leopard sharks were studied in Elkhorn Slough, California, USA. A total of 21 female leopard sharks (78 to 140 cm total length) were tagged with acoustic transmitters and tracked from August 2003 to February 2005. Eight sharks were manually tracked for 20 to 71.5 h, and 13 sharks were monitored for 4 to 280 d using an array of acoustic receivers. Female leopard sharks exhibited a high degree of fidelity to Elkhorn Slough. The distribution of tagged sharks changed seasonally and was likely associated with changes in temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen. Sharks used the area that comprises Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (ESNERR) extensively throughout the year, but especially during spring and summer. When sharks occupied ESNERR, their habitat use was tidally influenced, with sharks using low intertidal mudflats extensively when available. Sharks using the main channel tended to remain in subtidal habitats at all tidal levels. These results suggest that efforts to protect important leopard shark habitats in bays and estuaries should focus on preserving and restoring intertidal mudflats.

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Section: Habitat Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat use, residency, and seasonal distribution of female leopard sharks Triakis semifasciata in Elkhorn Slough, California

Carlisle¹,

Starr²

2009

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Diet studies have indicated that Cownose Rays consume a wide array of prey taxa, including small bivalve mollusks, crustaceans (e.g., amphipods and cumaceans), polychaetes, and even echinoderms (e.g., sand dollars; Smith and Merriner 1985;Collins et al 2007;Fisher 2010;Ajemian and Powers 2012). Commercial taxa that have been found to be a significant part of the Cownose Ray's diet are weak-valved bivalves, such as bay scallops Argopecten irradians in North Carolina only (Powers and Gaskill 2003) and soft-shell clams Mya arenaria, historically in Chesapeake Bay (Smith and Merriner 1985). Hard-shelled commercial bivalves, such as hard-shell clams Mercenaria mercenaria and eastern oysters Crassostrea virginica, have rarely been found in the natural diets of Cownose Rays (Smith and Merriner 1985;Collins et al 2007;Fisher 2010), and studies have indicated that Cownose Rays display a preference for softer-shelled bivalves (Fisher et al 2011;Ajemian and Powers 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For more than 40 years, Cownose Ray predation on commercial bivalves has been a concern for declining shellfish industries, particularly oyster growers (Merriner and Smith 1979;Smith and Merriner 1985). Recently, Cownose Rays have become a source of controversy and media attention due to increased conflict between Cownose Rays and the restoration and aquaculture efforts in Chesapeake Bay, along with claims that the Cownose Ray population increased dramatically coastwide due to top-down predation release (Myers et al 2007).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Age, Growth, and Reproductive Biology of Cownose Rays in Chesapeake Bay

2013

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The Cownose Ray Rhinoptera bonasus is an opportunistic predator of benthic invertebrates and has had a long history of negative interactions with commercial shellfish industries. Most recently, Cownose Rays have been implicated in negatively affecting the recovery of bay scallop Argopecten irradians stocks in North Carolina and oyster restoration and commercial aquaculture efforts in Chesapeake Bay. A mitigation attempt to decrease predation on shellfish has resulted in an unregulated fishery for Cownose Rays. Cownose Ray life history suggests that they are highly susceptible to overexploitation. We determined age, growth, and size at maturity for Cownose Rays collected in Chesapeake Bay. In total, 694 rays were used for the study: 246 males ranging in size from 30.0 to 98.0 cm disc width (DW) and 448 females ranging from 30.0 to 110.5 cm DW. The oldest individual observed was a female (107 cm DW) estimated at age 21. Our data suggested that Cownose Rays grow considerably faster during the first few years than has been previously reported, thus producing higher estimates of the growth coefficient k. The best‐fit growth models (three‐parameter von Bertalanffy models) estimated k‐values of 0.2741 for males and 0.1931 for females. The large sample size and inclusion of many older animals (n = 119 rays over age 10) resulted in theoretical maximum size estimates that matched the observed sizes well. The median size at 50% maturity was 85–86 cm DW for males and females (corresponding to ages of ∼6–7 for males and ∼7–8 for females). Fecundity in Cownose Rays was typically one embryo per mature female, with a gestation period of 11–12 months. Our study confirms that the Cownose Ray is a K‐selected species with late maturity, long gestation, and low reproductive potential, indicating that it could be highly susceptible to overexploitation. Received February 28, 2013; accepted June 3, 2013

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“…smalltooth sawfish, 2 sympatric elasmobranchs, known and potential prey) in the ecosystem to determine (1) what broad prey types (e.g. invertebrates, fish) the smalltooth sawfish exploits from its nursery residency through adulthood in these waters by using fecal DNA and comparing isotopic signatures of smalltooth sawfish fins to those of sympatric species with well-characterized diets: the bull shark, which is piscivorous (Snelson et al 1984, Cliff & Dud-ley 1991 and the cownose ray Rhinoptera bonasus, which feeds on benthic invertebrates (Smith & Merriner 1985, Collins et al 2007); (2) whether hypothesized ontogenetic diet shifts by smalltooth sawfish occur (e.g. early reliance on benthic infauna, later reliance on fish); and (3) whether resource or habitat partitioning could be occurring between the smalltooth sawfish and other elasmobranchs in the ecosystem.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sympatric elasmobranchs and fecal samples provide insight into the trophic ecology of the smalltooth sawfish

Poulakis¹,

Urakawa²,

Stevens³

et al. 2017

Endang. Species. Res.

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Food Habits and Feeding Behavior of the Cownose Ray, Rhinoptera bonasus, in Lower Chesapeake Bay

Cited by 106 publications

References 18 publications

Habitat use, residency, and seasonal distribution of female leopard sharks Triakis semifasciata in Elkhorn Slough, California

Habitat use, residency, and seasonal distribution of female leopard sharks Triakis semifasciata in Elkhorn Slough, California

Age, Growth, and Reproductive Biology of Cownose Rays in Chesapeake Bay

Sympatric elasmobranchs and fecal samples provide insight into the trophic ecology of the smalltooth sawfish

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