SFist: Another (Dead?) Manta Ray

000Montgomery

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:24:12 -0800

http://reclaimingmisshavisham.typepad.com/reclaiming_miss_havisham/2008/08/yes-video-footage-of-manta-ray-mystery.html

000Montgomery

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:54:57 -0800

The real phenomena is how it fell out of the invisible building http://000montgomery.ning.com/video/video/show?id=1998303:Video:522

sharkyd

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:32:03 -0800

It's so weird that so many people are so upset about this when hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of sharks and rays are killed every year commercially for their fins (fins cut off, animal thrown over the side to die) and no one makes much of a fuss.

000Montgomery

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:59:32 -0800

Here is what realy happened at 000 Montgomery that day http://000montgomery.ning.com/video/video/show?id=1998303:Video:522

Shibi

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:44:36 -0800

Nice catch, Molly!! @bornandraised: This IS where I get all my Bay Area news. If I don't see it here, well damn, I can't be sure that it really exists.

RobInSF

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:52:48 -0800

hmmm...slow news week. Maybe Russia will invade Poland and give us something global to focus on. Or maybe Brad and Angelina will do something like fart or eat corn flakes. Where's Chris Daly when we need him...

elephanza

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:46:12 -0800

It's obviously Migden's way of getting out her aggression for losing to ultra-sweet Mark Leno. Look for more weird shit from the oxicotin-queen for the next several months. Hide your pets and children! Especially, for now, your manta rays!

travin

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:24:31 -0800

It's useful to be a self-loathing homosapien. Because in the absence of god, that's all that's left. So why not express your insecurity of being through doe-eyed creatures?

Jas

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:41:15 -0800

You know, animals up and down the food chain kill and eat each other in spectacularly disrespectful ways. That includes us humans. Jimmy fisherman tossing his ray in the back of his truck is no different than any other fisherman the world over - except that a squeamish, finger-pointing public happened to notice this time around.

Brock Keeling

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:34:37 -0800

o rly? tell us more, fred.

hoboking

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:30:48 -0800

Ummm. I'm just going to play devil's advocate here, but really, if these folks were fishing for ray, catching thier own food to process and prepare I can't get very outraged. Yes, the practice of letting the one's fish die on thier own in the back of a pickup is tacky (but it keeps the thing fresh on the ride home). It's hardly tackier then that of commercial fishing though -- slow choking death in nets, or freezing to death in the hold while trying to breath the deadly deadly air. Ummm. Yeah. Still, I can't get too upset about that either. If one is eating meat, even fish (hell even shrimp - they have nerves), one is allowing untold pain to be inflicted on animals. No real way around it. If one wants to complain about that fine, reasonable enough. Still, if this rayocidal maniac is actually going to eat his fish and not dump it on the sidewalk, all I can muster is a shrug.

fsharp

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:27:39 -0800

Someone caught this skate in the bay and threw it in the back of their truck so they can take it to a restaurant or market to sell. It's common to do this in countries where you don't have ice handy. The first skate on market st. was probably dumped because they couldn't find a buyer. There are tons of these in the bay right now. The starfish was a hoax.

allergic

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:12:26 -0800

I'll never understand how humans determine their caring for the life of another animal based on the quantity remaining of that animal's species. Maybe if we start respecting all life, we won't have to worry about species becoming extinct.

Mustard Bizzle

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:50:37 -0800

Poor thing but I'm not surprised, some people have no regard for animal welfare let alone rights.

Paddy

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:37:34 -0800

this is screwed up i agree w/ emilys

emilys

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:21:07 -0800

Jas Thanks for the info, but doesn't anyone still feel sorry for the possibly slowly dying ray? I agree, it either should be put out of its misery, or something really strange is going on here.

mrjuelz

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:36:53 -0800

I use to catch those ray off Elephant Rock in Tiburon all the time. never ate them though, because i'm not a huge fan of scallops. catch and release.

chap

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:10:24 -0800

Ok, yes. I see that it's probably for food but...still can't figure out the ray and starfish sitings on Market St.

travin

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:04:45 -0800

Jas, no. That's perfect. I was wondering where we could check what's "in season". Thanks for the much needed reality check.

Jas

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:56:47 -0800

Please read this: http://www.pierfishing.com/pier_of_the_month/9907.html It's regarding fishing off the pier at Maritime Park. 8th paragraph down: "The vast majority of the fish that are caught are the old standbys for this area: white croaker, walleye and silver surfperch, striped seaperch, black seaperch, white seaperch, pileperch, shinerperch, jacksmelt, Pacific tomcod, sand sole, Pacific sanddabs, starry flounder, English sole, California halibut, brown rockfish, black rockfish, striped bass, brown smoothhound sharks, leopard sharks, California skates, big skates and bat rays. " Further on: "Summer and fall are the best times for sharks, skates and rays, although some big runs of bat rays have been recorded in the spring." Sometimes the most obvious answer is the hardest to fathom, isn't it?

Brock Keeling

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:53:01 -0800

omg,what?

bornandraised

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:52:56 -0800

on the one hand, i want to know what political strife group is using this as their subversive message. on the other hand, im skeptical, because while we have picked up on 3 of these sorts of sightings at sfist, i haven't seen anything on any other blog or sfgate. now, if there were some major thing going on on market surrounding wandering sea creatures, don't you think some other news source would also be picking this up? i mean, yea, they may all be that dense, but in all seriousness its hard for me to believe.

Sivart13

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:52:22 -0800

This has got to be some totally gross viral marketing.

frankjordan

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:52:01 -0800

i used to hang around with someone who would catch skate off the albany bulb, take the tail for accessorizing hats and bbq the rest. sometimes circular portions are cut and sold as "scallops."

chap

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:37:54 -0800

travin - I was not kidding. The women taking the pic saw the ray flopping around. It was dying in the back of that truck. They could have at least killed it to put it out of its misery. I would have definitely confronted the women and asked if it was for food (ok fine) or to be dropped off on the sidewalk again.

jacksonqwest

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:32:42 -0800

That, folks, is just a common ray or skate which are in no way endangered (and are quite tasty). Manta, or devil rays, measure up to 25 feet across, are a threatened species, and live nowhere near the San Francisco Bay Area.

critter

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:15:03 -0800

Yeah chap, agreed. Who's got sleuth skills in here? Run those numbers.. I lived in the tropics for a while and got to spend time with a lot of these animals in the wild. They are beautiful, gentle and generally do not enjoy riding around cities in pick up trucks.. I do think it is food related though. Probably was headed into or from China Town, no?

travin

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:12:56 -0800

chap wrote: ...The question is why did person taking these pics not confront the women in the truck? you're kidding, right?

megang

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:08:22 -0800

What the hell is going on?!

chap

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:04:56 -0800

The question is why did person taking these pics not confront the women in the truck? Is it illegal to capture rays? It's obviously not for food because it would have been on ice...yes/no? Does anyone have connections to the DMV to track down the license plate? This is getting really disturbing.

travin

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:02:02 -0800

Didn't someone mention that some people catch these for their tails? I wonder what that's about.

jkahn

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:46:46 -0800

Wow. WTF?