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Shoreline Gallery

Make a new friend and reach out to a ray as they glide through the lagoon.

What Will You Discover?

Step up to the shallows of Ray Bay for a chance to observe, interact with, and gently touch four species of stingrays. While you're here, learn all about tidepools and axolotls, too!

Cownose Ray

The cownose ray is a pelagic and gregarious species that forms large schools with thousands of members. It is thought that the cownose ray’s high predation of oyster beds in areas like the Chesapeake Bay could further complicate the problem of declining oyster populations.

Conservation Status

Vulnerable

Diet

Mollusks, crustaceans, fish

Range

Eastern and western Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico

Did You Know?

Cownose rays have a venomous barb at the base of their tails. Captain John Smith learned this the hard way when in 1608 he was stung so severely his crew thought he was going to die. The site on the Rappahannock River where he was stung is still known today as “Stingray Point.”

Southern Stingray

Found on reef-adjacent sandy bottoms, seagrass beds, and lagoons, the southern stingray is typically buried in the sand during the day, preferring to forage at night. While buried, this ray uses holes behind the eyes called spiracles to draw in clean water above the sand and pump it across the gills on the underside of the body.

Conservation Status

Near Threatened

Diet

Mollusks, worms, crustaceans, fish

Range

Western Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea

Did You Know?

Southern stingrays will use special electroreceptive pores called ampullae of Lorenzini to locate buried prey items by sensing the faint electric fields emitted by living things. Once buried prey is identified, the ray will use jets of water from their mouth and a digging motion with their wings to excavate and consume its prey.

Roughtail Stingray

The roughtail stingray is a coastal species that can often be found resting over soft substrate like sand or mud for long periods each day. When hunting, this ray will excavate large depressions in the sand by flapping its body to expose buried fish or invertebrates.

Conservation Status

Vulnerable

Diet

Fish, crustaceans, mollusks

Range

Western Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico

Did You Know?

One of the largest and deepest diving stingrays, the roughtail stingray has been recorded at a weight of 660 pounds and a maximum depth of 900 feet! Adults have rows of sharp thorns along their back, especially focused around and on their tail, though these thorns are absent in juveniles.

Spotted Eagle Ray

The spotted eagle ray is easy to identify with its spotted dorsal surface and whip-like tail. Usually found in bays and near coral reefs, this ray will use its shovel-shaped snout and duck-like bill to search in the sand for invertebrates. When a prey item is found, the ray crushes it with plate-like teeth.

Conservation Status

Endangered

Range

Atlantic Ocean

Diet

Mollusks, worms, crustaceans, fish, snails

Did You Know?

Once thought to be a single species found worldwide in tropical and temperate waters, recent research suggests that the spotted eagle ray is actually three to four distinct species based on geographic location, morphology, genetic analysis, and other factors.

Forbes Sea Star

The forbes sea star is found in the intertidal zone of rocky shores, where it forages for bivalve mollusks. By sensing the chemical signature, or scent, of nearby mollusks, the sea star can quickly find its prey and force open their shells with its strong arms and tube feet.

Diet

Mollusks

Size

Up to 6 inches

Range

Western Atlantic Ocean

Did You Know?

Sea stars move via their water vascular system by changing the water pressure and moving their tube feet. The long, slender tube feet are hollow and full of water. Each tube foot is connected to its own tiny sac called an ampulla that sits inside the body of the sea star; this structure looks and acts similar to a turkey baster. When the sea star squeezes the ampulla, it extends the tube foot in the direction it wants to go. Then, muscles that run along the length of the tube contract, squeezing water back into the ampulla and shortening the tube foot. All those tiny tube feet contracting is what drags the sea star along.

Common Sea Star

The most abundant sea star in the North Atlantic Ocean, common sea stars live in depths ranging from the intertidal zone to 650 feet deep. Typically found on rocks, sand, mud flats, and in beds of mussels.

Size

Up to 20 inches

Diet

Mollusks, crustaceans, worms, carrion

Range

Northeastern and Western Atlantic Ocean

Did You Know?

Sea stars have neither jaws or teeth; instead, they expel their own stomach and gastric juices onto their prey and wait until their prey is externally digested into a soft mass before retracting their stomach.

Common Rock Barnacle

Common rock barnacles live in the intertidal zone and, therefore, need to be able to survive long periods outside of the water. The shell can be closed tightly to prevent it from drying out. When the tide is up, barnacles filter feed plankton and other particles from the water by extending their modified legs into the water column like a net.

Diet

Plankton, detritus

Size

Up to .6 inches in diameter

Range

Northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

Did You Know?

Barnacles are actually crustaceans, closely related to crabs and shrimp. After a short phase spent as planktonic larvae, barnacles settle, attach to a hard substrate, and never move again.

Common Atlantic Slipper Snail

Common Atlantic slipper snails prefer wave-protected areas such as bays, estuaries, or sheltered sides of wave-exposed islands. They are often found living stacked on top of one another on rocks, on horseshoe crabs, shells, and on dock pilings.

Size

Up to 5-6 cm

Diet

Plankton, detritus

Range

Western Atlantic Ocean; invasive in Western Europe

Did You Know?

In the United Kingdom, where this species is invasive, there is growing evidence they are detrimental to native oyster and mussel populations. They are currently being considered as a human food source to reduce their spread from Southern England.

Orange-footed Sea Cucumber

Orange-footed sea cucumbers can be found in rocky habitats, typically less than 100 feet deep, especially around the bases of kelp. When feeding, they will extend a bramble of mucus-coated tentacles, like a fishermen's net, to collect plankton from the water column. When disturbed, they will retract their tentacles and flatten their body.

Size

Up to 20 inches

Diet

Plankton, detritus

Range

North Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean

Did You Know?

This species has five distinct rows of tube feet, which they use for locomotion. They can move at the break-neck pace of 1.5 feet per minute!

Pacific Blood Star

Easy to identify due to its bright orange coloration, the Pacific blood star may be found from the tidal zone all the way down to over 300 feet deep. They typically have five thin, long arms but can also have 4-6 arms.

Size

Up to 13 inches

Diet

Sponges, bryozoans

Range

Northern Pacific Ocean

Did You Know?

Sea stars have the incredible ability to regenerate lost limbs and even neurons. This has opened up a new field of research to study sea star stem cells to hopefully one day aid in repairing human injuries.

Common Periwinkle

The common periwinkle is mainly found on rocky shores in the intertidal zone, though it sometimes lives in small tide pools and muddy habitats such as estuaries. Since it arrived in North America around 1840, this snail has become the most abundant shallow-water herbivorous snail from Nova Scotia to Long Island Sound. It is reported to have displaced some native snails and has greatly altered New England intertidal communities by allowing slower-growing algae to dominate over the faster-growing algal species it prefers.

Diet

Algae

Size

Up to 2 inches

Range

Northeast Atlantic Ocean; invasive in Northwestern Atlantic

Did You Know?

Archaeological evidence shows that the common periwinkle has been an important food source for humans on the European Continent for thousands of years. In Scotland, periwinkles have been consumed by humans since at least 7500 B.C.E and are still a staple food and export to this day!

Common Blue Mussel

The common blue mussel is found in intertidal or shallow water beds on rocky shores, where they remain permanently attached, often in dense masses. They spawn from April to September, depending on water temperature, currents, and other environmental factors. Sexes are separate, and gametes are shed into the water where fertilization occurs.

Diet

Plankton

Size

Up to 8 inches

Range

North Atlantic Ocean

Did You Know?

Mussels attach to solid surfaces by creating an anchor made from byssal threads. These threads are remarkably strong and complex, neither degraded nor deformed by water as many synthetic adhesives are. This has spurred many research scientists to synthetically produce the incredible adhesive substance that mussels can create.

Truncate Soft-shelled Clam

The truncate soft-shelled clam burrows in mixed sand, sandy mud, or gravel from the lower intertidal zone to about 300 feet deep. To feed, the clam extends a siphon that can be four times longer than its shell. The incurrent siphon draws water into the clam's mantle cavity, the space between its body and its shell. The water then passes over the gills, which are covered in microscopic hairs called cilia that trap food particles, which are then transported to the clam's mouth and ingested. The filtered water is then expelled from the clam's body through the excurrent siphon.

Size

Up to 3 inches

Diet

Plankton, detritus

Range

Arctic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean

Did You Know?

Bottom trawling affects this species negatively, as they do not bury themselves very deep in the sediment. When a net is dragged across the bottom, it can scoop up the clam as bycatch or damage its siphon.

Bermuda Chub

The Bermuda chub forms large schools on shallow reefs, often feeding on plankton near the surface. They can also be found over algal reefs, seagrass beds, and reef flats. Juveniles, which often shelter among floating Sargassum seaweeds, can disperse across vast distances.

Size

Up to 30 inches

Range

Worldwide in tropical waters

Diet

Algae, crustaceans, mollusks, plankton

Did You Know?

Bermuda chub have been documented to feed on the feces and vomit of spinner dolphins in the southeast Atlantic. They're not picky eaters to say the least.

Axolotl

The word "axolotl" originates from the ancient Aztec language, translated to mean "water-dog", these endearing aquatic salamanders are characterized by three pairs of external gill stalks behind their head used to uptake oxygen from the water.

Conservation Status

Critically Endangered

Range

Lakes of Mexican Central Valley

Diet

Mollusks, fish, crustaceans, insects

Did You Know?

The enigmatic axolotl is an odd conservation story, as they are nearly extinct in the wild due to habitat destruction, and yet there may be a million or more in captivity, many of which are used in developmental research. Nearly all modern day captive axolotls can be traced back to just a handful of animals shipped from Mexico to France in 1864.

Shoreline Gallery

What Will You Discover?

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What's Inside

Exhibits Nearby