Rays

Overview

Rays sit inside the batoid branch of cartilaginous fishes, alongside skates, sawfishes, guitarfishes, and rhino rays. For divers, that means the Rays bucket covers very different encounters: buried Stingrays on sand, midwater Eagle Ray passes, and cleaning-station visits from Giant Oceanic Manta Ray.

Most rays share the same broad underwater silhouette: enlarged pectoral fins fused to the head, a flattened disc, and eyes and spiracles high on the body. In many bottom-feeding species, the mouth sits underneath the body so the animal can feed while staying close to sand or rubble.

Where Divers Meet Them

Many rays are coastal or reef-associated and spend much of their time over sand flats, lagoons, reef edges, seagrass beds, and channels. Others are much more mobile. Mobulid rays can travel in schools and make very deep dives, while many skates are more closely tied to colder bottom habitats.

Feeding and Behavior

Rays do not all feed the same way. Many stingrays, skates, and eagle rays hunt benthic invertebrates, mollusks, crustaceans, and small fishes. Mobulid rays are the obvious exception, filtering plankton from the water column. That difference matters underwater: a bottom-resting ray is often feeding or sheltering close to structure, while mantas and devil rays are more likely to be cruising current lines or cleaning stations.

Conservation Outlook

Rays are part of the wider global shark-and-ray conservation crisis, with fishing pressure and bycatch remaining the main recurring threats across the group. Risk is uneven, but it is often highest for slow-growing species and for rays caught in coastal fisheries or traded internationally. Management can help, yet protections still vary sharply by species and region.

This group guide pulls together 10 published Rays guides so divers can move from broad trip intent to the right species pages, destinations, and dive spots faster.

Many ray and skate species are now threatened or endangered, and global shark-and-ray assessments point to overfishing and bycatch as the dominant drivers. The risk is not uniform, but slow growth, low reproductive output, coastal habitat pressure, and international trade all make recovery difficult for several ray lineages. Progress depends on enforceable fishery limits, bycatch reduction, habitat protection, and species-specific trade controls where they exist.

Movement and Range

Rays occur from shallow tropical reefs to deep temperate seafloors. Many of the rays divers see most often are local bottom-associated animals that patrol sand patches, reef margins, and channels, but mobulid rays are much wider-ranging and can move offshore, school seasonally, and dive deep.

That spread matters for trip planning. A ray encounter on a sheltered reef flat is a very different proposition from a seasonal manta aggregation or an open-water eagle-ray pass on a current line.

Bequia, Carriacou (Tyrrel Bay), and Khao Lak (Similan and Surin Islands) currently stand out as strong destination entry points for Rays planning.

Spain, French Polynesia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are some of the clearest country-level starting points for this group right now.