A Heaping Helping Of Chesapeake Ray

The cownose ray is making quite a pest of itself in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The voracious critters swim north from Florida and munch their way through the oyster beds on the bay. They also do extensive damage to other shellfish like scallops. Folks down there have come up with a plan to start a commercial fishery of the pests, though.

In late spring, they migrate from southern Florida into the bay, churning up the bottom to feast on oysters and other shellfish.

But now, the rays might have met their match: humans and their ever-evolving quest for new tastes from the sea.

Scientists, regulators and commercial seafood representatives met recently at a workshop to find markets for ray wings and filets.

A commercial ray harvest could protect delicate attempts to restore pollution-filtering oysters, reduce damage to ecologically valuable seagrass beds and create jobs.

"I find a ray of hope for this project — finally," said Shirley Estes of the Virginia Marine Products Board.

Named for their distinctive heads, cownose rays glide through the water on wings sometimes mistaken for shark dorsal fins. They protect themselves with a poisonous stinger and grind shellfish inside their powerful mouths.

Last month, rays ruined an oyster restoration effort on the Piankatank River, eating most of about 750,000 oysters.

Man, that's a lot of oysters. You begin to see the extent of the problem. Anyway, seafood companies are looking into exporting the rays to South Korea, which has quite an appetite for ray. They import around $18 million worth of rays annually. In addition they are trying to expand the market in the US by marketing them under the name "Chesapeake Rays" which sounds a bit better than "cownose". Look for it in a seafood restaurant near you! Tell them Blue Crab Boulevard sent you.