Some Glen Burnie residents are breathing a sigh of relief after dead cownose rays left a horrid smell.Residents who live in the neighborhoods surrounding Marley and Furnace creeks said they dealt with the odor of decaying rays for days. The residents told 11 News they’ve never seen anything like this before.”It was so bad, the smell was so horrific, you couldn’t even come out of your house,” said Dale Lott, of Point Pleasant. “They had all these cownose stingrays that were just dead.”Residents described the smell as so bad that they wouldn’t go swimming or even leave their houses.”We didn’t know what did it. We thought it was the temperature change — we went from rain to all the sudden extreme heat. We had a sewage spill, so many factors, we couldn’t really know what did it,” said Doug Johnson, of Point Pleasant.Burke Myrie told 11 News that the scene turned him sour on fishing in the area for a while.”It was really stinky. I couldn’t fish for two weeks. The smell was too high; I wasn’t going to stay around,” Myrie told 11 News.Maryland Department of the Environment officials sent an email to 11 News, saying the first die-off was reported on June 20, involving about 80 dead rays.But over the past couple of days, MDE received more calls with an estimated 50 to 150 dead rays found along Marley and Furnace creeks.In its email, MDE said: “Cownose rays travel in schools that can number in the thousands, and they are typically seen in open waters such as the mainstem of the Chesapeake Bay or the mouth of bay tributaries. The most likely cause of these die-offs is overcrowding of rays wandering into smaller bodies of water that do not provide sufficient dissolved oxygen.””We were pushing the sting rays off our bulkhead and kept pushing them out and pushing them out and they were just floating,” Lott told 11 News. “It cleared up. Going into the fifth day, the stench started to go away. You could come outside and enjoy your back yard and your pier and being out on the water.”MDE said its crews are collecting water samples to check on water quality.

GLEN BURNIE, Md. —

Some Glen Burnie residents are breathing a sigh of relief after dead cownose rays left a horrid smell.

Residents who live in the neighborhoods surrounding Marley and Furnace creeks said they dealt with the odor of decaying rays for days. The residents told 11 News they’ve never seen anything like this before.

“It was so bad, the smell was so horrific, you couldn’t even come out of your house,” said Dale Lott, of Point Pleasant. “They had all these cownose stingrays that were just dead.”

Residents described the smell as so bad that they wouldn’t go swimming or even leave their houses.

“We didn’t know what did it. We thought it was the temperature change — we went from rain to all the sudden extreme heat. We had a sewage spill, so many factors, we couldn’t really know what did it,” said Doug Johnson, of Point Pleasant.

Burke Myrie told 11 News that the scene turned him sour on fishing in the area for a while.

“It was really stinky. I couldn’t fish for two weeks. The smell was too high; I wasn’t going to stay around,” Myrie told 11 News.

Maryland Department of the Environment officials sent an email to 11 News, saying the first die-off was reported on June 20, involving about 80 dead rays.

But over the past couple of days, MDE received more calls with an estimated 50 to 150 dead rays found along Marley and Furnace creeks.

In its email, MDE said: “Cownose rays travel in schools that can number in the thousands, and they are typically seen in open waters such as the mainstem of the Chesapeake Bay or the mouth of bay tributaries. The most likely cause of these die-offs is overcrowding of rays wandering into smaller bodies of water that do not provide sufficient dissolved oxygen.”

“We were pushing the sting rays off our bulkhead and kept pushing them out and pushing them out and they were just floating,” Lott told 11 News. “It cleared up. Going into the fifth day, the stench started to go away. You could come outside and enjoy your back yard and your pier and being out on the water.”

MDE said its crews are collecting water samples to check on water quality.