Purple Eagle Ray

The purple eagle ray is a medium-sized species. The disc is diamond-shaped and the pectoral fins are very large and wing-like, the front edge being straight or slightly convex. The slender, whip-like tail has one or two long stinging spines at its base and has a distinctive fold on its ventral surface. There are seven rows of teeth in each jaw, the central one being the largest. An averaged sized adult has a disc-width of 540 mm (21 in), a length of 200 mm (8 in) and a tail of 250 mm (10 in). The largest males in Indonesia had a disc width of 800 mm (31 in), while the females a disc width of 1,140 mm (45 in). The dorsal surface is a uniform purplish-brown or greenish-brown without dark spotting, and the ventral surface is whitish.

This fish occurs in the tropical and subtropical west Pacific Ocean; its exact range is unclear but includes Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Okinawa (Japan). It is a deep-water species with a patchy distribution and is rarely brought to the surface with fishing gear. Its habitat is the open sea, mostly the outer continental shelf and the upper part of the continental slope at depths of between 117 and 330 m (400 and 1,100 ft).