Dental Care?

Have you ever seen something some many times without really noticing it?  Or maybe it would be better to ask, have you really examined everything around you?  I mean really looked at your surroundings.  I have always thought that I am rather observant.  I view things in a bit different way than most folks and see some of the smallest details that otherwise go unnoticed.  While we were fishing, Michael caught a nice size stingray that entirely swallowed the hook.  The job of retrieving that hook was not going to be pretty.  Surgery would definitely be necessary.  

I grabbed ahold to the pincers that are used to twist a hook free when good ole fingers are too large.  If the hook is merely snagged onto a bit of skin, no problem..the hook can be backed out of the flap and the fish usually is none the worse for wear.  If that hook is far down in the stomach like this one was, the fish is pretty much a goner.  Being a stingray, this one would be used as crab bait.  After the stingray settled down a bit, I cut off the barb so I would not have to be in danger of getting a nasty wound.  Flipping the fish upside-down,  I, again, smiled at the alien-like face that stared up at me.  I tugged on the line..the mouth gaped open and I could see practically all the way to the stomach!  There was Son's hook!  I slipped the pincers into the huge mouth..scrape!  The metal grated against the tooth plates of the stingray's jaws.  As many times as I have caught stingrays, I never really looked at those teeth!  I twisted the hook loose and then examined the tooth plate a bit closer. 

Stingrays do not have sharp pointy teeth like most other fish.  Instead they have flat plate-like teeth that are set in a "pavement" arrangement.  It sort of reminded me of a "honeycomb" arrangement, to be honest!  Each "paving stone" or tooth was a flat six-sided tooth.  Do not get the notion that these teeth are harmless just because they are flat and not pointy!  The jaws of a stingray are strong enough to crack clam shells and those flat teeth are the "armor" that allows the jaws to do their work!  Rubbing the metal pincers across the tooth plate produced a grinding sound which made me thankful that my fingers had not come in contact with that mouth!  Yep!  I had never really examined the mouth of a stingray before..I guess I can mark that one off my bucket list of things to do during my lifetime!