Monster 6-Foot, 400-Pound Stingray Caught Lurking Off the Coast of Connecticut

Crew members aboard a vessel caught a colossal stingray off the coast of Connecticut on Wednesday.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, the Connecticut Fish and Wildlife Service stated the stingray measured over six feet in length and five feet in width, estimating its weight to be about 400 pounds.

The catch was made by the crew members of the Long Island Sound Trawl Survey, which is used to measure the abundance of fish and wildlife species in the Long Island Sound. They managed to snap a few photographs of this magnificent creature before releasing it back into the water.

The post identified the creature as one of the roughtail stingrays. The Connecticut Fish and Wildlife Service referred to them as “gentle giants” that are “found along the Atlantic coast from New England to Florida but are relatively rare in Long Island Sound.”

Furthermore, the post noted that roughtail stingrays have venomous spines in their tails but “don’t frequent shallow nearshore waters where people wade and swim.”

A photograph accompanying the post showed the stingray, belly-up, with a crew member observing it.

“Rather than attempt to roll the animal over, our crew quickly took some measurements and immediately returned the ray to the water to watch it swim away alive and well,” the post said.