Marine life  /  Sharks & rays  /  Atlantic guitarfish
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Species entry

Atlantic guitarfish

Pseudobatos lentiginosus

A small shovel-nosed ray of shallow sand, half-buried and easily passed over.

Size
To 80 cm
Depth
1–20 m
Habitat
Shallow sand; Blue Heron Bridge
Active
Day and night
Range
Western Atlantic
Rarity
Florida
4 stars of 5, two or three a season
SP-01
atlantic guitarfish · full body · habitat
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To about 80 cm, sandy brown with fine pale spots and a long pointed snout, flattened at the front and shark-like behind. It buries itself in shallow sand with only the eyes and the outline showing.

It is a Florida and Gulf animal, and at Blue Heron Bridge it is one of the things that turns up on the sand under the bridge on a rising tide. Like the other guitarfishes it has no venomous barb. It is easily passed over: a buried one reads as a ridge in the sand until it moves.

Where to find:

LocationRarity Best monthsDepthHabitat
Florida United States editorial estimate
4 stars of 5, two or three a season
Year-round
1–20 m
Shallow sand; Blue Heron Bridge
Bahamas Bahamas editorial estimate
5 stars of 5, a handful of records
Year-round
1–20 m
Shallow sand

Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.

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