Marbled ribbontail ray

Not just Shark Pictures: Elasmodiver contains photos of sharks, skates, rays, and chimaera's from around the world. It began as a simple web based field guide to help divers find the best places to encounter different species of sharks and rays but it has slowly evolved into a much larger project containing information on all aspects of shark diving and photography. There are now more than a thousand shark pictures and sections on shark evolution, biology, and conservation. There is a large library of reviewed shark books, a constantly outdated shark taxonomy page, a monster list of shark links, and deeper in the site there are numerous articles and stories about shark encounters. Elasmodiver is now so difficult to check for updates, that new information and pictures are listed on an Elasmodiver Updates Page that can be accessed here:

WHAT'S NEW?

Shark picture - green sawfish

ELASMODIVER EXPANDED

If you're looking for a broader range of marine life pictures the following links represent a new area that contains pictures on other marine organisms and on marine habitats. This expansion of Elasmodiver is in its first stages but will eventually include pages on everything from sea stars to nudibranches. Creating this portal will take time and for now it consists of a token offering of fish pictures. Please return regularly to enjoy the progress.

FISH PICTURES

Behavior: Rests on sand. Forages for bivalves, shrimps, crabs and bottom fishes.

Reproduction: Ovoviviparous. litter up to 7.

Observations: Scott Micheal notes a report of one Marbled ray killing a diver with its barb.

Photographs: Cocos Island (Costa Rica), Ningaloo Reef (Western Australia).

Similar species: Blotched fantail ray Taeniura meyeni. more densely covered in black spots and blotches forming a black mat.

Reaction to divers: Moves away upon close approach.

Diving logistics: Probably the best encounters available with this ray are at Cocos Island off of the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, and in the Galapagos. At certain times at these locations (probably related to mating) hundreds of rays gather together and can be spotted on a single dive. Diving at Cocos is strictly liveaboard only with two operators presently running 1 to 2 week trips. See the link to the Undersea Hunter and Inula Diving on the Links page.

Other diving locations submitted by readers:

References and further reading:

Reef Sharks and Rays of the World. Scott W. Michael. Sea Challengers.