[Aliantha]

Those things are amazing. We were camping on an island in the middle of Hervey Bay a couple of years ago, and it was heavily populated with all different sorts of rays.

One morning we were swimming when there was a huge swirl in the water. At first we thought it was a shark as we were heading to shore, but once we were out and standing on the shore trying to calm our hammering hearts, this very curious eagle ray came right in to the shallows and just floated there looking at us. After a while, it moved up the beach a bit more, but as we walked beside it, it would stop and look at us for a while.

eta: In case you were wondering, this ray was wider than the span of my arms which would be 5'8.

It was one of the most amazing wildlife experiences I ever had. After that, we noticed it swam past at about the same time every morning, so we looked for it. It came in close once or twice again, but it mostly seemed to just keep to the deeper water.

Anyway, as to the other rays, did you know that manta ray's (and others too) can actually leap out of the water? That was another thing I found amazing. Especially if there were a couple swimming together and they leapt out at the same time.