The 2021-22 eagle ray season in Cozumel turned out to be one of the most exciting ones in years. There were several days when we sighted more than 20 eagle rays. Though the season is officially over, it’s not uncommon to see a few rays still lingering as we move into the summer months — especially juveniles.
Some of our favorite videos captured this season include our video of an eagle ray searching for food along the ocean floor, our video of of an octopus fighting an eel during a night dive, an unexpected encounter with a juvenile eagle ray during a surface interval, and one of our divers’ footage of several eagle rays gracefully soaring through the water while coral spawns.
Another highlight from this year’s eagle ray season was a video recorded by a diver named Charlie Castro that went viral in April of a hammerhead shark chasing, capturing and eating a juvenile eagle ray in the shallows of El Cielo. We’d heard of such behavior before but until he caught it on video and shared it, we hadn’t seen it up close. Some viewers felt sorry for the eagle ray but we thought it was truly a privilege to witness nature at its purest — the apex predator doing its job.