A large flat grey-brown stingray of Caribbean sand flats, often buried, and habituated to people where it is fed.
A diamond-shaped disc to about 1.5 m across, grey-brown above and white below, with a whip tail carrying one or more serrated barbs near its base. It lies buried in sand with the eyes and spiracles showing.
It is common on sand flats and in seagrass through the Caribbean and the western Atlantic. At several sites it is fed and is completely habituated to people, which changes the behaviour but not the anatomy: a crowded or startled ray still has a barb and still uses it.
Two practical points. Shuffle rather than stride when walking in shallow sand, so that a buried ray is pushed rather than trodden on. And when swimming above one, keep off the tail and give it a way out — the injuries at feeding sites happen when the animal has people on all sides.
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.