Seal Beach, CA a hot spot for stingray singles

Researchers believe Seal Beach is like a singles-bar hotspot where stingrays go to get acquainted before moving to an estuary to mate.

According to an article in Beachweek, Seal Beach has such a large population that it results in one-third of all injuries inflicted by rays on humans in the US. Warmer waters due to nearby power plants along with adjacent jetties and nearby breakwater offer ideal conditions for the rays. The site, according to marine biology instructor Christopher Lowe, mimics an estuary, or prime gathering spot for stingrays.

Six years ago Lowe began researching the stingrays lifestyles along a 40-mile stretch of coast as they migrate between Newport Beach and Long Beach. Assisted by University of Southern California's Sea Grant program, the Surfrider Foundation, and the Seal Beach lifeguards Lowe and 20 students net hundreds of the stingrays for study. The study includes measuring, tagging, and sometimes trimming the poisonous caudal spines.

Twice a month the students pull between 150-300 rays in a single tow. Their highest catch has been 800.

Lowe hopes to not only be able to track the stingrays, but learn more about their mating pattern which is still mostly a mystery.