The pelagic stingray is an active predator that captures prey by wrapping its pectoral fins around it, before manipulating it to the mouth.
It is the only stingray in which both sexes have pointed teeth, for grasping and cutting into slippery prey.
A wide variety of organisms are represented in its diet: crustaceans including amphipods, krill, and larval crabs, molluscs including squid, octopus, and pteropods, bony fishes including herring, mackerel, sea horses and filefish, comb jellies and medusae, and polychaete worms.
Off California, pelagic stingrays hunt large mating aggregations of squid that form from November to April.
Off Brazil, this species follows groups of Atlantic cutlassfish (Trichiurus lepturus) towards the coast in January and February, with both predators seeking small schooling fishes.
Juvenile rays consume 6–7% of their body weight in food per day, which declines to just above 1% in adults.
The pelagic stingray is an active predator that captures prey by wrapping its pectoral fins around it, before manipulating it to the mouth. It is the only stingray in which both sexes have pointed teeth, for grasping and cutting into slippery prey. A wide variety of organisms are represented in its diet: crustaceans including amphipods, krill, and larval crabs, molluscs including squid, octopus, and pteropods, bony fishes including herring, mackerel, sea horses and filefish, comb jellies and medusae, and polychaete worms. Off California, pelagic stingrays hunt large mating aggregations of squid that form from November to April. Off Brazil, this species follows groups of Atlantic cutlassfish (Trichiurus lepturus) towards the coast in January and February, with both predators seeking small schooling fishes. Juvenile rays consume 6–7% of their body weight in food per day, which declines to just above 1% in adults.
Pelagic stingray