Relation to Man 



Rays have never been as innportant, 

 commercially, as sharks; but small 

 fisheries for rays are in existence in 

 many parts of the world. The meat of 

 the wings (pectoral fins) is said to be 

 of excellent quality, but little market- 

 ing of ray meat is done in this country. 

 Some of the larger skates and rays 

 contain appreciable quantities of oil 



but with less vitamin-A content than 

 sharks. 



Danger from stingray wounds has 

 been discussed. Stingrays are found 

 most often along quiet, muddy shores. 

 The spines of stingrays have provided 

 primitive peoples with weapons, and 

 even today, in some countries, there 

 are laws prohibiting or limiting the 

 possession of stingray spines. 



CHIMAERAS 



Numbers and General Distribution 



Only about 2 dozen species of this 

 group are recognized at the present 

 time. This number will, perhaps, be 

 added to as deep-water and midwater 

 oceanic investigations become more 

 comprehensive. 



Chimaeras are worldwide in dis- 

 tribution and are found in almost all 

 seas--tropic, subtropic, temperate, 

 and boreal. In most instances, how- 

 ever, they appear to be limited to the 

 cooler water masses. For that reason, 

 in the tropic and subtropic seas, they 

 are generally found in the deeper and 

 therefore cooler depths or in cold 

 upwellings. Chimaeras have beenfound 

 from near the surface to depths of ap- 

 proximately 1,500 fathoms. Veryprob- 

 ably they exist in deeper waters also. 



Abundance 



It is difficult to assess the abun- 

 dance of the chinnaeras because the 



group is so little known. Surely, com- 

 pared with the bony fishes, they are 

 infrequently observed or collected, but 

 this may be, in part, a function of dif- 

 ferences in distribution or reaction to 

 collecting gear. The chimaeras ap- 

 parently occur in a "patchy" distribu- 

 tion pattern, and when and where 

 present, they often are relatively abun- 

 dant. Much more work remains to be 

 done before problems of chimaera 

 distribution are completely resolved. 

 In some parts of the world, the fishes 

 are sufficiently abundant to form the 

 basis for small fisheries. In the north- 

 western Atlantic (along the eastern 

 coast of the United States), the group 

 is known only from isolated specimens 

 collected with small scientific gear. 

 In the Gulf of Mexico, several speci- 

 mens have been trawled on or beyond 

 the edge of the Continental Shelf, and 

 where they were taken at all, they ap- 

 pear to be found in aggregations. Off 

 Puerto Rico, in the Caribbean, small 

 aggregations also appear to be present. 



Sensory mucous 



|5^- Dorsal Rn 



2^ Dorsal Fin 



Caudal Rloment- 



Pectoral Rn 

 Single Gill opening 



A generalized chimaera illustrating ternts used in description, 



14 



Upper Caudal Fin 



Lower Caudal Fin 



