- [Coyote] I see it, I see it.

- [Crew Member] Oh, there he goes.

You got it, you got it.

- [Crew Member] You get him?

- I got it, I got it, I got it.

- [Crew Member] All right. - Yes!

- [Crew Member] Yes! - [Coyote] Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Hold on, he's trying to get out of the net.

(dramatic music)

(calm music)

- [Narrator] The coastline of Australia varies greatly

from region to region.

And along the Sunshine Coast,

you will find a plethora of rich,

mangrove-lined inlets known as estuaries.

An estuary is a partially enclosed body of brackish water,

which means that it is comprised

from both a fresh and salt water source.

These ecosystems are influenced

by the rising and falling of the tide

and are considered to be one of the most biodiverse

natural habitats in the world.

Today, we are exploring near the town of Maleny.

This beautiful stretch of rolling hills and coastal land

is the perfect backdrop for an episode of Beyond the Tide.

- All right guys, well this is going to be our first

Beyond the Tide episode here in Australia.

And our target species is the stingray.

As you can see right here, I have a big, sturdy net.

I'm gonna need this if I wanna catch one of these creatures

and get it up close for the cameras.

We're at low tide right now,

so there's a good chance we're gonna come across one.

Now, I'll be looking for shadows in the water,

and I want you guys to do the exact same thing.

If you see something moving, let me know.

We're gonna hopefully be able to catch it.

- Quick question. - Yeah.

- I've heard that walking in water like this

is kinda dangerous when there's stingrays around.

How do you do that?

- Ah, yes, the key movement today

is going to be shuffling our feet.

So watch this.

You wanna kinda be moving like this.

And the reason for that

is that the rays will oftentimes bury themselves down

in the sandy silt.

You don't wanna step straight down on top

of one of those barbs.

It will go right through your foot.

So by shuffling your feet, if you kick a ray,

you'll scare it, and it will take off.

And you'll avoid getting stung.

All right, guys, so everybody just drag your feet today

when we're walking.

Sound good?

- [Crew Member] Sounds good to me.

- All right, let's head this direction, going with the wind.

- [Narrator] Brackish water tends to be incredibly cloudy,

as tidal movement causes sediment on the estuary basin

to be in constant turmoil.

This environmental challenge made spotting animals

incredibly difficult.

(suspenseful music)

- The water's actually a little clearer in this area.

You can see the wind has actually kinda died down.

We've got a little bit more plant coverage

that's blocking the wind.

Let's slowly venture out into this direction.

Let me lead.

I'll let you know if I see anything.

And remember, continue to drag your feet,

because if I walk past something and don't disturb it,

there's a chance you could step right on top

of one of those barbs.

So drag those feet, guys.

- [Crew Member] All right, let's do it.

- [Narrator] As we continued inward

toward an exposed sandbar,

the tides of luck began to turn.

And there before us, the shadow of a stingray

began to materialize beneath the surface.

- [Crew Member] Got it?

- I do not.

- [Crew Member] Ah.

- Ah.

- [Crew Member] Shoot, that was close.

- That was close, though.

I think I got just on top of it.

I could feel it pulling.

Actually, it was so big, it might not fit in the net.

But that was our good first shot at it.

We definitely are seeing rays now.

It's just a matter of actually being able

to scoop one up in the net.

And I think that's the play.

Once I get close to it and it starts to move,

I need to sort of explode into action

and try to scoop it.

And what I'm trying to do is get the net

in front of its nose and then pull backwards.

Okay, well, we're getting close.

- [Crew Member] All right, good first shot.

- Keep looking.

- [Crew Member] Right here, right here, right here.

- I see it, I see it.

- [Crew Member] Get him.

- [Crew Member] Oh, there he goes.

- [Crew Member] Oh, he's right here, he's right here

in front of me.

He's right here.

Dude, he's right here.

Look at him, look at him.

- [Crew Member] There you go, he's booking.

See his wake, see his wake?

- [Coyote] Yeah.

- Put these sunglasses on.

Put these sunglasses on.

You need to see him.

Put that on.

- He's right here. - Right there, right there.

Right there, in front of him.

In front of him, you got it, you got it.

- [Crew Member] He started back, get ready.

- [Crew Member] Don't let him get out.

Stick to the open.

- [Crew Member] Did you get him?

- I got it, I got it, I got it.

- All right. - Yes!

- Yes! - Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on.

It's trying to get out of the net.

Whew, all right!

Good spotting, guys.

When Mario handed off his polarizing sunglasses to me

right in the middle of that,

changed the game immediately,

and I was able to see it so much better.

- [Crew Member] Look at the spots, that's awesome.

- All right guys, we have to be really careful here.

I'm trying to determine where its barb is.

I see it, right on the back of the tail there.

Okay, it appears that this is a Maskray.

And let me do this.

You see those eyes up front there?

Wow! So bizarre looking.

All right, guys,

so that we can get this ray up close for the cameras,

it's gonna be very hard for me to handle this,

also dangerous because of the venomous barb.

But there's a little pocket of water up here.

Let's place it in that pocket,

and we'll be able

to observe it in the water

and in a situation that we can keep control.

Are you ready? - [Crew Member] Yep.

- I'm gonna quickly move it up here.

All right, let's get it into this pocket of water here.

Let me check the temperature first.

Yeah, this is plenty cool.

This is perfect.

Okay, I'm gonna let it gently sorta swim out here.

- That's a great ray, man.

- It really is.

Look at the eyeballs.

They look just like the eyes of a crocodile

positioned on top of its head there.

Now some species of rays have very wide-set eyes.

They don't have the best eyesight.

And similar to sharks, they have sensory organs

on the front of their noses

that allow them to sense for their prey.

Now this species, I could tell you this much,

I actually have my finger in its mouth right now.

It doesn't have teeth.

It just has these flat plates

that he uses to grab onto its food and grind it up.

Now some species of rays do in fact have teeth.

You could see him constantly trying to move here,

because it is capable of spinning its tail around.

And what I don't wanna take

is the sting from that barbed tail.

Let me turn it like this.

And while I'm talking about what it eats,

it eats small crustaceans, little fish, mollusks.

They're pretty opportunistic.

A ray of this size would even take something

like a small octopus.

But I know what you guys are really interested in

is that tail.

And look at that, this one has two venomous spines.

Those are modified dermal dendrites,

basically like scales growing out of this creature's body.

It does have a very narrow row of them

down the middle of the spine, and there at the tail,

double stinger.

Now, that stinger is laced with venom.

And similar to a lionfish,

they actually have a membrane-like sheath over the stinger.

And when it inserts into something

that's trying to attack it,

that sheath sort of peels away,

and the venom is then leaked into whatever it is

that's being stung.

Now they do not use their stingers at all

for catching their food.

They're strictly used as a defense mechanism.

And as you can see,

it's kind of flicking its tail around there.

I'm just trying to keep my fingers away from that tail.

Now some ray species have two stingers like this one.

Many only have a single stinger.

In some species, stingers can grow up to a foot in length.

I tell you what you don't want to happen,

a foot-long stinger going through your arm.

Let me see if I can just slowly lift you up there

a little bit, buddy.

Now the gills of this creature are actually

on the underside of its body.

And what I'm gonna do now is try to lift it up

by just holding on to the base of the tail.

Nope, I don't think I'm gonna be able to do that,

because the tail of this species is short.

Let me give that one more try though.

I can hold on to these air holes

and the back of its tail like this.

I'm trying not to take a sting.

This doesn't hurt it in any way whatsoever.

Look at the underside there.

See if you can see those gills.

Do you see the gills under there?

- [Crew Member] Yep, hold it there.

I can see the mouth working too.

- There you go, buddy.

And that's about as much as I want to try

to actually handle this animal.

As you can see, it's breathing

by passing water over its gills.

You see these two air vents right here?

The water comes in through the mouth, pass the gills,

and then out through these little orifices right there.

Similar to an octopus,

the way that an octopus can shoot water

out of those little valves on the side of its body,

this guy is also capable of shooting water off to the sides.

- [Crew Member] So he's breathing just fine right now.

- Oh, yeah, he's completely fine.

And like I said,

I wanna try to handle it as little as possible.

Now because we know that rays are related to sharks,

you may be asking yourself,

"Well, Coyote, does its skin feel just like a shark?