Jayne Jenkins found the sandy floor of Chowder Bay on Sydney Harbour a mess of fishing lines, hooks and ray carcass, last Saturday morning. Fins had been chopped from two bull rays, the diver told Guardian Australia. One had a big split across its head – Jenkins identified it as Stumpy, a well known ray that had its tail chopped off in previous years.
“The eyes of the rays were still open,” the diver said. “It was just horrendous.” A New South Wales Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development spokesperson confirmed the department was investigating a report from a diver that a bull ray had been killed at the diving spot in Clifton Gardens on Sydney’s north shore.
“Recreational fishers are allowed to catch [rays] in areas not protected by a closure or by Marine Protected Area rules, using approved methods and gear,” they said. There is a combined bag limit of five rays in NSW. Jenkins suspects the killing of the two rays happened last Friday night.
A friend sent her a message that night saying: “this is what we found”. “I had to see it for my own eyes to believe it,” Jenkins said. The next morning, she went for a dive.
“It was one of the spookiest dives I’ve ever done. “There was not a single fisherman on the pier, which is unbelievable ..
. The water was so flat, and that is very rare. “But then to see [the rays] and how they have been butchered so barbarically is unbelievable.
” Jenkins isn’t the only diver incensed at the killi.