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Subject: [Nml] DUH!
captainmike7@XXX.XXX
Date: Thu Feb 11 1999 - 20:53:56 EST
Thursday, February 11, 1999
Motorboat No Match for Manta Ray in Tug of War
From Reuters
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla.--Two Florida boaters met a
real sea monster when their craft was dragged
for hours by a
powerful creature that turned out to be a giant manta
ray, the
Coast Guard said Wednesday.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Barnes said the
agency received a
radio distress call from a 16-foot boat that reported
it was being
dragged by its anchor line by something unknown.
The Coast Guard sent a rescue boat to investigate and
it found the
motorboat being dragged in circles by something
beneath the
surface.
The crew transferred the anchor line to the Coast
Guard vessel,
freeing the men in the motorboat, who had tried to
use their
90-horsepower engine to go in reverse and stop
themselves from
being dragged out to sea.
After the Coast Guard's 41-foot boat pulled on the
anchor line for
several minutes, a giant manta ray, measuring an
estimated 18 feet
in width, came to the surface.
The Coast Guard continued to try to pull the rope
free, but the giant
wing-shaped creature eventually freed itself and swam
away,
Barnes said.
He said the manta ray could have pulled the boat to
the bottom if
the water had been deep enough for it to do so. While
manta rays
have been known to weigh up to 3,000 pounds, the
shark-related
fish are usually far smaller.
"If there were just a ledge and he decided to head
down, that boat
could have been gone," Barnes said. "Overall, the
manta ray pulled
the 16-foot vessel for almost two hours and towed it
approximately
1 1/2 miles offshore."
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All Rights Reserved
Any boater who has to call the Coast Guard for help, instead of casting off
or cutting the anchor rode - while watching himself be towed out to sea for
two hours ....deserves to be!
M
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