Common stingray: the ray with the venomous spine that lies in the shallow sand of the Mediterranean

October 26, 2026

It lies buried in the sand, often just a few metres from the beach, and carries a serrated venomous spine on its tail: the common stingray, *Dasyatis pastinaca* — in German Gewöhnlicher Stechrochen, in Spanish raya látigo común or pastinaga, in Italian pastinaca or trigone, in French pastenague commune, in Portuguese uge, in Dutch gewone pijlstaartrog, in Danish pigrokke, in Swedish spjutrocka, in Norwegian pilrokke or pilskate, in Finnish keihäsrausku, in Russian морской кот (“sea cat”), in Turkish dikenli vatoz, in Greek βατοτρυγόνα, in Slovenian morski bič, in Albanian bishtmiu or shkotërr (GBIF), in Japanese コモンスティングレイ and in Arabic الشفنين البحري (Wikidata). For Croatian we found no confirmed species name in GBIF or Wikidata. Here is how to recognise it, where it lives, what it eats, how it reproduces, what to do after a sting — and why it is now considered threatened.

A ray with more than 260 years of naming history

It was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his *Systema Naturae*, at the time as *Raja pastinaca*; according to the English Wikipedia there are at least 25 earlier mentions under non-binomial names. It belongs to the stingrays (Dasyatidae). Like all rays it is a cartilaginous fish: its body and pectoral fins form a flat, diamond-shaped disc, followed by a whip-like tail that, according to the English Wikipedia, is roughly half as long as the disc.

How to recognise it

Shape: flat, diamond-shaped disc with a whip-like tail.
Spine: a serrated, venomous spine on the tail. According to FishBase it is a modified dermal denticle, grows up to 35 cm long, is occasionally shed and grows back.
Size: typically around 45 cm disc width (English Wikipedia). How large it can get is disputed — see the contradictions below. According to the English Wikipedia, the largest known specimen was found in 2016 in the Turkish province of İzmir, with a disc width of 2.21 m.
Teeth: according to the English Wikipedia, 28 to 38 tooth rows in the upper jaw and 28 to 43 in the lower.
Age and maturity: according to the English Wikipedia, the oldest wild individual reached 10 years, in captivity 21 years; males mature at 22 to 32 cm, females at 24 to 38 cm disc width.

What it eats

According to FishBase, the common stingray feeds on bottom-dwelling fish, crustaceans and molluscs; the English Wikipedia mainly names bottom-dwelling crustaceans, plus molluscs, bristle worms and small bony fish, and the German Wikipedia also echinoderms. In the Gulf of İskenderun (Turkey), according to the English Wikipedia, its diet consisted of around 99% crustaceans; with increasing age, fish became more important. FishBase gives it a trophic level of 3.6. According to the English Wikipedia it is active mainly at night; by day, according to the German Wikipedia, it lies hidden in the sand.

Where it lives: from the beach down to 200 metres

According to FishBase, its range covers the eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea; in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, according to the English Wikipedia, it occurs throughout, whereas in the northeastern Atlantic it is much rarer. How far north and south it reaches is described differently by the sources — see the contradictions. According to FishBase it lives inshore, over sandy and muddy bottoms, sometimes near rocky reefs, and enters lagoons, shallow bays and estuaries; according to the English Wikipedia it tolerates low salinity and prefers calm water. According to FishBase it is found at depths of 5 to 200 metres. According to the English Wikipedia it lives alone or in groups, some of which are segregated by sex.

Reproduction: live young instead of eggs

The common stingray does not lay eggs: according to FishBase and the German Wikipedia, the young develop inside the mother’s body, nourished at first by yolk, without a placenta. According to all three sources, gestation lasts around four months. According to the English Wikipedia, birth usually takes place in summer, between May and September, and in some areas within a narrower window, for example in July and August. According to the English Wikipedia, newborns are about 8 cm wide and 20 cm long. How many young a female has is disputed — see below. According to FishBase, the species has very low resilience: a population needs more than 14 years to double.

The sting — and what to do next

According to the English Wikipedia, the common stingray is not aggressive; the spine is used for defence. A sting can, however, cause a very painful wound, which according to the English Wikipedia is rarely life-threatening. If you are stung: get medical care. The MSD Manual (Professional Version) mentions, among other things, wound examination in the emergency department, tetanus prophylaxis and elevating the affected limb; people should remove spine fragments themselves only in limited cases. Immersion in hot water, which many recommend, is disputed in the medical literature — see the contradictions.

Status, bycatch — and what you can do

On the IUCN Red List, the common stingray is classed as Vulnerable. According to the English Wikipedia it is not specifically targeted, but it is landed in large numbers as bycatch and processed into food fish, fishmeal and liver oil; in West Africa, according to the German Wikipedia, it is exported dried and smoked. Around the Balearic Islands, according to the English Wikipedia, it makes up 40% of shark and ray catches in trammel nets. According to the English Wikipedia, surveys show declines in the Mediterranean and the northeastern Atlantic; in the Bay of Biscay it may have disappeared. According to the German Wikipedia, it is protected in five of the six marine protected areas of the Balearic Islands; in addition, according to the English Wikipedia, there is an EU ban on bottom trawling within 5.6 km of the coast.

For you on the water, this means: anyone fishing on the bottom in the Mediterranean may hook a common stingray. Two things then matter most — keeping clear of the tail and a quick, gentle release, because the species reproduces slowly and is threatened. Which protective rules apply in your waters is set by national and regional regulations and protected areas — we found no uniform rule for anglers. Check with the local fisheries office, harbour authority or guide before your trip.

Five contradictions in the sources

How big does it get? FishBase: at most 75 cm total length and 14.6 kg, but a disc width of around 150 cm. English Wikipedia: up to 1.4 m wide and 2.5 m long, record specimen 2.21 m wide. German Wikipedia: at most 2.5 m long, usually well under 1 m, up to 10 kg.
How many young? FishBase: 4 to 7. English Wikipedia: 4 to 9 — and two litters per year. German Wikipedia: 4 to 6 embryos.
How far does it range? FishBase: from the North Sea to Angola. English Wikipedia: from southern Norway and the western Baltic to Madeira and the Canary Islands. German Wikipedia: from the south coast of Great Britain and the North Sea to Mauritania.
How deep does it usually live? All agree on a maximum of around 200 metres. According to FishBase and the German Wikipedia, 20 to 35 metres is typical; according to the English Wikipedia it usually goes no deeper than 60 metres. And the IUCN date: FishBase gives 4 August 2020, the German Wikipedia 2020, the English one 2021 (both Jabado and colleagues).
Does hot water help? The reference work StatPearls (NCBI) calls hot-water immersion the standard treatment; a small 2018 study with 22 patients found markedly less pain. The MSD Manual, by contrast, states that its effect as an early treatment is not proven. If you try it, StatPearls says you should test the temperature with the uninjured hand — the injured one often senses heat less well.

Three name traps

Blue stingray is not common stingray. Some databases (Catalogue of Life, ITIS) list “blue stingray” as an English name for *Dasyatis pastinaca*. According to the English Wikipedia, however, the blue stingray has been a separate species since 1993 (Cowley and Compagno), *Dasyatis chrysonota*, from southern Africa.
Not every stingray in the Mediterranean is this one. The Mediterranean is also home to Tortonese’s stingray, *Dasyatis tortonesei*; how it differs from the common stingray is, according to the English Wikipedia, poorly understood — it may not even be a separate species. A photo taken from the boat is often not enough for a reliable identification.
Pfeilschwanz is not a crab — and “sea cat” is not a cat. The EU database EUNIS lists “Pfeilschwanz” (“arrow tail”) and “Peitschenrochen” (“whip ray”) as German names for this ray; otherwise, “Pfeilschwanz” is the German name for horseshoe crabs (Pfeilschwanzkrebse). And the Russian морской кот (“sea cat”) refers to the stingray here — translate it and you can quickly end up with a completely different animal.

That leaves the question every article in this series starts with: when. Habitat, prey and habits are described above, and they are fixed. What changes every day is everything else — light, air pressure, wind, water temperature, current — and whether an evening over the sandy bottom off the coast is worth it is decided right there. That is what StrikeAhead calculates: it takes the conditions at your water and tells you when the trip is worth it. And because you don’t know an unfamiliar area, its drop-offs and its rules from day one, StrikeAhead Pathfinder tells you with whom to head out: curated guides and skippers, personally checked before listing — licence and insurance — with verified catches instead of promotional photos, no paid ranking and, for you as an angler, no booking fee. The app tells you when, Pathfinder with whom.