Abstract
The yellow stingray (Urobatis jamaicensis) is a benthic mesopredatory elasmobranch about which little information in known. Using gastric lavage, stomach contents were collected from 18 yellow stingrays from three locations in northern Biscayne Bay, Miami, Florida as preliminary data for a longer-term project. Infauna from the stomach contents were compared to infauna collected from faunal survey samples collected via hand nets from each sampling location. Of the 18 rays sampled, 56% of the stomachs were considered empty. Of the stomachs that did have contents, (n=8), 17 individual prey items identified as annelids and crustaceans were recovered. Three prey items were too highly digested and unidentifiable and were therefore excluded from analysis. Three metrics were used to describe stomach contents: frequency of occurrence (%O), relative numerical abundance (%N), and prey specific abundance (%Ap). Annelids and crustaceans, specifically penaeid shrimp and sipunculids, were most prevalent in yellow ray diet by all three metrics.