Years ago several of us youngsters were swimming near Hickory Point where South Creek joins with the lower Pamlico River. Someone started screaming that we should exit the water quickly because a “pair of sharks” was swimming along the surface of the water within a few yards of us.

Before we all managed to make it to the shore, a knowledgeable adult set us straight and told us not to worry, “That’s just a stingray patrolling his territory like they always do at this time of the spring. Those two shark fins you’re seeing are just the tips of the sting ray’s wings sticking out of the water.”

During the last 10 or so years, the numbers of these sting rays seem to have increased dramatically for some unknown reason(s) and these fish are presenting problems to swimmers, anglers and commercial fishermen.

These close relatives to sharks, skates and sawfishes are noted for lying on the bottom, waiting for food to come their way, but in recent years, rays — such as the more common, cow-nose rays — have been extremely abundant not only in our eastern North Carolina sounds and rivers, but also on a world wide basis. Such well-known publications as National Geographic have taken an interest in this particular stingray and have published thousands of photos of cow-nose rays in an apparent formation swimming across the ocean.

In the ocean these rays are not particularly destructive, but when these fish swarm into estuaries they represent a real threat to our economically important shellfish, such as blue crabs, oysters and bay scallops. Like huge vacuum cleaners, these rays can use their crushing teeth to break open shellfish shells and then swallow the flesh. Commercial shell-fishermen and crabbers blame a lot of the shortage of these shellfish on the cow-nose rays.

Sport fishermen trying for more desirable fish don’t find too much sport in the less than spectacular rays and often simply cut their lines when they’ve been unlucky enough to tie onto one. Tarpon tournament fishermen have nicknamed the rays “Pancake Tarpon” and, in jest, have created a separate category for anglers who catch the most rays during their contest.

The N.C. State University Seafood Laboratory has tried to develop a commercial market for this fish in the Far East, as the demand for ray and skate meat is substantial. Unfortunately, the large efforts needed to harvest and prepare the meat of these fish for that market makes the commercial trade impractical at the present time.

Archery hunters have found another use for these fish and in recent years have developed quite a sport, spearing of these fish by using special fish arrows and compound bows.

The sport of bow-fishing is growing yearly as archers — wanting some sport to fill the gap between hunting for whitetail deer and other game animals — have found a new use for cow-nose rays.

Most archers use a relatively quiet running motorboat to approach the rays, as they swim just below the surface of the water. Using an arrow with a heavy line attached, they try to shoot the arrow into the ray’s body. They then try to pull the “harpooned” stingray into the boat, where it is usually killed and thrown back overboard. Some more dedicated bow-fishermen have had special high towers fabricated to attach to the bows of their boats. This enables the archer to shoot at a better angle into the water and into the mobile animal.

A few of these fishermen have tried to prepare these fish for table use by skinning the wings and then cutting out smaller bits of meat similar to the shape of scallops. Since the rays are boneless by nature, the cleaning process is relatively easy. Breaded and deep-fried, this somewhat unusual seafood is reported to taste like scallops. Stingray meat is rumored to sometimes be pawned-off to diners as scallops.

While it’s relatively simple to safely handle a live stingray, there is some danger involved with the poisonous spine attached to the ray’s upper tail. These rays can and will whip their tail around into an intruding object and drive the spine into an arm or leg of its attacker. Barbs on the sides of the spine make it very difficult to remove. The spine of a large ray is long enough to be driven really deeply into someone and, as the late Crocodile Hunter might attest, could be lethal.