BUFFALO, N.Y. — The cownose ray, a stingray with a wingspan of 2 or 3 feet long, might seem like a strange thing to eat. With a square snout and smooth brown or olive skin, the creature could pass for an alien.
Nevertheless, the ray could soon land on our dinner plates, a victim of its own appetite.
The Rochester-based supermarket chain Wegmans rolled out the species this summer in stores in Maryland and Virginia after learning that the predators were ruining efforts to restore oyster fisheries in Chesapeake Bay. The rays dine on shellfish, and each year, they descend on the bay’s warm waters to summer, breed and antagonize fishermen by hunting oysters and clams.
When agricultural officials in Maryland and Virginia suggested that one way to reduce the ray’s numbers would be to eat them, Wegmans went to work.
The rose-hued meat has the consistency of veal. The company’s chefs experimented with recipes—cownose ray with white wine and capers, cownose ray with marinated honey—and determined that the seafood was, indeed, something customers might like.
With taste tests complete, Wegmans introduced the species to customers at $7.99 a pound.
For now, ray season is over down south. But next year, Western New Yorkers might have a chance to sample the fish, with Wegmans planning to bring it to seafood counters closer to home.
But while rays may seem like a novelty item now, Greenpeace seafood campaigner Casson Trenor warns that a strong and effective fishery management plan is the only way to ensure they don’t become endangered, too. Scientists have attributed the ray’s population boom to severe overfishing of the animals’ natural predators, sharks.
“There are a lot of rays in the Chesapeake today, but there’s no such thing as limitless abundance,” Trenor wrote in an e-mail. “You’d think we’d have picked up on that by now.”
Update (Aug. 4, 2011): Select Wegmans seafood counters in the Buffalo area are now carrying the cownose ray. We’ve updated our story, with more details on the environmental impacts of fishing the ray, here: Stingrays for Dinner?
Everything is in such a delicate balance. I’m glad some people are keeping track of al the reactions to every action that is taken. I would try the sting rays but I don’t think Wegman’s should call it the “cownose ray”.
Rochester consumers beware: Cownose rays usually have just one baby per year and are exceptionally susceptible to overfishing. Many scientists dispute the reported population boom and related imbalances. Careful management is indeed required to ensure sustainable fishing for such a vulnerable species. Currently, however, there are no cownose ray population assessments, estimates for safe catch levels, or limits on fishing. Increased consumer interest is likely to spark more investment into this unregulated fishery, potentially making it harder to limit catches and avoid depleting yet another marine species.