Photo Of Monstrous Stingray Caught By CT Crew Goes Viral

CONNECTICUT — A jaw-dropping photo of a 400-pound roughtail stingray caught Wednesday by Connecticut Fish and Wildlife crews trawling Long Island Sound is being shared 'round the world.

"Our Long Island Sound Trawl Survey crew never knows what they might see on a given day out on the Sound—yesterday was a stand-out example," the team wrote in a Facebook post alongside photos of the ray, which apparently measured in at over six feet long and five feet wide.

Roughtail stingrays are "gentle giants" found along the Atlantic coast from New England to Florida but are relatively rare in Long Island Sound, according to Connecticut Fish and Wildlife.

"Like all stingrays, roughtails have a venomous spine in their tail—but not to worry—they are not aggressive and don’t frequent shallow nearshore waters where people wade and swim," the organization wrote.

The crew quickly took measurements and photos then immediately returned the ray to the ocean and watched it swim away "alive and well," according to the organization.

The photo's viral moment was sparked by what many consider to be an unusual size comparison made by CBS News on social media Friday—the roughtail stingray specimen is apparently "nearly the length of Travis Kelce," Kansas City Chiefs tight end and Taylor Swift's rumored new beau.

CBS News' post garnered hundreds of shares and replies on X, formerly known as Twitter, with one user writing "Do we measure all things in terms relative to Taylor Swift’s boyfriends?"

"I would normally ask how much is that in alligators, but you're supposed to be a serious news outlet and this is profoundly cringe," another user chimed in.

That's not to say some didn't get a laugh out of the post. A third user praised the author's drive to combine the hottest celebrity news story with the hottest marine wildlife story to get more eyes on the post, writing "truly incredible SEO work, someone needs a raise."

The stingray wasn't the only star Long Island Sound catch of the day Wednesday—in the same Facebook post, the Connecticut crew shared a photo of another impressive, albeit less viral, specimen: a cobia, or Rachycentron canadum.

The cobia is a large predatory fish found throughout the Atlantic Ocean, but most frequently south of the Chesapeake Bay in Delaware and Maryland, Connecticut Fish and Wildlife said. The fish can reach as many as six feet long and weigh as much as 150 pounds.

"As climate change has caused New England waters to warm, this species has become an increasingly common visitor to Long Island Sound," according to the organization.

The Long Island Sound Trawl Survey is a tool used by marine fisheries staff to measure the abundance and distribution of finfish, squid, and other macro-invertebrates like lobster, crabs, horseshoe crabs, and whelks in Long Island Sound, officials said on the state of Connecticut's official website.

"By comparing trawl survey data with current fishery data, each species' harvest can be weighed against its abundance, providing a gauge to determine whether harvest limits or targets are being met," officials said.

With this information, officials can help prevent overfishing, which can have long-term biological and economic consequences, according to the NOAA Fisheries.

The survey also provides a measure of the abundance of young fish entering the population each year, as well as a detailed characterization of the size and age composition of several species entering the sound, according to officials.

Temperature, salinity, and water depth are recorded at each site before the 46-foot-sweep trawl net is deployed for 30 minutes, state officials said. When the net is brought back up, the sample is "quickly sorted by species, counted, weighed, and further processed as needed to support specific research and monitoring needs."

The goal of the survey, according to officials, is to "support both local and coast-wide fishery management and, increasingly, to gauge the ecological health of the sound."