The Children's Crusade to Save the Rays

Young Marylander's ray killing petition reaches 90,000+ signatures

A 16-year old Marylander hopes Gov. Larry Hogan will stop the killing of cownose rays, collecting 94,000 petition signatures to back her up.

Charli Holland, 16, of New Market said she was horrified after she learned about cownose ray tournaments on the Chesapeake Bay. These tournaments are sometimes held in Anne Arundel County, where fishermen get on boats, shoot the rays with arrows, hit them with a bat to stun them and then put them in a bucket to be weighed later.

Some of the rays are kept for food, while others, dead after suffocating outside the water, are dumped back into the Chesapeake Bay. Pregnant rays are not spared, and sometimes are prime hunting targets as the unborn babies can add to a ray's weight and help the fishermen win the competition.

"They are using them for their own entertainment," Charli said. "They get prizes for killing these animals, and they just drop them into the bay like they are nothing."

Charli said she partnered with her friend, Deja Davis, 18, of Washington, D.C., to craft the petition, hoping it will gain enough traction to draw notice from Hogan.

The petition comes after wildlife advocate groups showed undercover footage of the ray tournaments at the Annapolis Regional Library.

Cow nose rays are an impressive beast. Especially on light tackle. I hooked one fair and square last week while fishing, and it took me a good 15 minutes to wear it out and bring to the boat where I could grab the leader and break it off, sacrificing 30 cents worth of lead or so to avoid having to put the damn thing in the boat, with all the risk that entails (they do have a poisonous spine). Once you get their attention, it seems a bit like having hooked a freight train.

It is generally believed that ray populations are up in recent years as shark populations, their only significant predator, have been driven down by over fishing in the coast (our rays are migratory, entering the bay in spring and leaving for the ocean in fall).

While some people claim they are edible, my one trial suggested that while they aren't poison, they aren't very tasty either. Their meat is grayish, and shot with red meat, and like all shark family fish, they store urea in their tissues to offset the salt in the water. But there are people who eat them, and more power to them.

In the Bay, they are well known for demolishing shell fish beds. They are able to dig up clams and crush oysters, and pounce on crabs as well. Certainly, fishermen, both recreational and commercial would be happy to see a few less in the Bay. While I would probably not join a tournament for ray fishing, I don't really have a problem with them.

Please dispose of the carcasses elsewhere, however, as a dead ray smells incredibly bad (a cross between dead fish and stable waste due to the urea), and are disgusting on the beach. If you have an Asian family handy with a desire for ray steak, give it to them.