The Florida Aquarium’s seven cownose stingrays returned safely home on Monday after weathering Hurricane Milton at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
When the storm ripped off the stadium’s fabric roof last Wednesday night, the stingrays remained safe in their 10,000 gallon, 35-foot habitat, which was located off right-center field.
Animal care experts with The Florida Aquarium successfully relocated the male stingrays from Tropicana Field back to the Aquarium in downtown Tampa.
“We’re pleased to report the cownose stingrays handled the storm well. With the Tampa Bay Rays support, our staff was able to provide onsite care over the past several days and today, we brought them safely back to the Aquarium,” said Craig Johnson, The Florida Aquarium’s Associate Curator, in a news release.
“We will continue to monitor their health over the coming days, but currently, all are eating and behaving normally.”
The stingrays were at the baseball stadium for Major League Baseball season as part of the Tampa Bay Rays Touch Experience, the first-ever interactive marine exhibit at a professional sports venue, where the team has featured the aquarium’s popular stingray touch tank since 2006.
The flat-bodied cownose rays, named for their distinctive head shape, resembling a cow’s nose, is the same species found in the waters of Tampa Bay.
The seven cownose stingrays are on public display residing in a separate area of The Florida Aquarium’s second floor Stingray Beach exhibit, which is sponsored by the Tampa Bay Rays.
Last week, the Florida Aquarium also evacuated more than 4,000 coral juveniles and 100+ broodstock from the Coral Conservation and Research Center in Apollo Beach to other locations in West Palm Beach and Atlanta to keep them safe from expected storm surge.
These corals, including some rescued from last summer’s marine heatwave in the Florida Keys, are part of a broader initiative to safeguard species crucial to marine biodiversity.
They also evacuated to their Tampa campus downtown a rescued sea turtle that was found stranded in a ditch on the side of the road in a Weeki Wachee neighborhood after being washed in by Hurricane Helene’s storm surge.
They also moved several African penguins from their first-floor habitat to higher ground, as well as a smack of moon jellies, six snakes, three lizards, three turtles, two alligators, two toads, and a hermit crab.
