The banded guitarfish, mottled guitarfish, prickly skate or striped guitarfish (Zapteryx exasperata) is a species of fish in the Rhinobatidae family found from shallow water to a depth of 660 ft. in the East Pacific from California, United States, to Mazatlan, Mexico, including the Gulf of California.

The Banded Guitarfish displays many similarities to their sharks relatives such as dorsal fins and oval shape. This leads some people to refer to the animal as a Guitar-ray or Guitar-shark.

During Winter and Spring when the waters are nutrient rich and colder you can find the Banded Guitarfish off the coast of Cabo San Lucas. They like to dwell on rocky and sandy parts of the ocean.

They are pretty calm and they don’t mind scuba divers who want to observe them.

More from my dive trip to Cabo can be found here (sea horse) and here (whitetip sharks).

I captured these images with a Panasonic GH5. Here’s a link to my underwater camera set-up.