Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 5, 1 May 1990 — Naturally Hawaiian [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Naturally Hawaiian

By Patrick Ching artist/environmcntalist

Hawaii's Rays — Fish that fly through water

Sting rays, the smallest of the ray families, (up to four feet wide) | ean be identified by their square shaped bodies with their "wings" extending to the front of their heads. Eagle rays, on the other hand, have more

triangular shaped wings that do not extend past the head. Eagle rays may grow up to seven feet wide and ean easily be identified by the many white spots that are scattered over the upper surface of their bodies. Both sting rays and eagle rays are bottom feeders. Their meals consist of worms, shellfish, moilusks and occasionally small fish. They are often found in shallow waters where they lie half-sub-merged in the sand grazing the bottom for food. Both sting rays and eagle rays possess barbed, poisonous stingers on their tails. If stepped on they ean inflict a serious and painful wound. The largest of Hawaii's rays are the manta rays. These magnificent creatures may grow to be over 20 feet wide and weigh over 3,000 pounds. Unlike sting rays and eagle rays, manta rays have adapted to feed in the surface waters and many are pelagic or occur far out at sea. The fleshly appendages on the front of the manta ray's head are called eeplialie fins. These fins aid in directing food into the ray's mouth. Rays exist throughout the oceans of the world. Many oeeanie cultures use the meat of the rays for food, the skins for drums, and the tails and the stingers for whips and weapons. Undoubtedly, the Hawaiians found many uses for these strange beings as well. My earliest memory of a ray is when one eame while I was standing on the rocks at Makapu'u beach looking out at the oeean staring at the oeean in a sort of daze. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something break the ocean's surface. 1 turned my head quickly but saw nothing. The next thing I saw what I thought to be the dorsal fins of two sharks. It wasn't until it practically flew out of the water that I realized that what I thought to be shark fins were actually just the wing tips of a giant ray. Since that time as a child l've had many pleasant encounters with rays and have acquired a special

fondness for these strangely beautiful creatures. There are three families of rays that inhabit Hawaiian waters; sting rays and eagle rays, being the smaller types and manta rays being the larger. The sting rays and eagle rays were called hihimanu or lupe because of the way they seem to fly through the water like a bird or as a kite flies througb air. The manta rays were called hahalua whieh referred to the two flap-like appendages on

the sides of their mouths. All Hawaiian rays have the following characteristics in eommon. They all have enlarged pectoral fins whieh make up the bulk of their bodies. They are all ovoviviparous whieh means that pregnant females retain their young inside their bodies till they are fully formed. Their skeletons are eomposed of cartilage, not bone, and they are dark colored on top and light colored below.