Scuba divers encounter massive stingray off Florida

A group of Florida divers enjoyed a close encounter last week with a stingray that appeared to have been larger than the divers in their scuba gear and fins.

The accompanying video clip – featuring footage captured by Howard Cohn – shows Shawn Campbell swimming alongside the massive roughtail stingray at a depth of 40 feet off Tarpon Springs.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHP2nTilKNk%5D

The encounter, during a Narcosis Scuba Center expedition, was rare in that this species is typically found in much deeper water.

“Everyone was focused on the wreck so I started to ditter out into the sand and it was just laying there, the biggest creature I’ve ever seen out in the water,” Campbell, a dive master for Narcosis, told the Tampa Bay Times.

Shawn Campbell swims near giant roughtail stingray. Photo: Howard Cohn/Narcosis Scuba Center

Campbell, 38, positioned himself near the stingray to help show its size: perhaps 10-12 feet long, including the tail.

Roughtail stingrays, which inhabit coastal waters of the southwestern, northwestern and eastern Atlantic Ocean, are the largest whip-tail stingrays in the Atlantic. They can measure 8 feet across and weigh up to 800 pounds.

Their tails, which boast poisonous serrated spines, can measure more than twice the length of their bodies.

Reads a description by the Florida Museum: “It lives deeper than the casual beach-goer would normally encounter, but offshore sports fishers and divers might encounter this stingray.”

The stingrays are not aggressive toward humans, but should be treated with caution and respect.

–Photo courtesy of Howard Cohn/Narcosis Scuba Center