Rays in the Gulf of Mexico

It is my firm belief that these are stingrays of the eagle ray family. They may possibly be butterfly rays. They travel in groups and have a 24-32" wingspan. They stay close to the shore and feed. They are dark on top and light underneath. They do have long tails. Their shape is unlike a manta ray in that they appear to be 2 right trianges attached to a long body and their head is forward. I love watching them. Today they came by several times as did the dolphins and once I saw an entire school of medium sized fish fly out of the ocean!

everything ocean you'd like to know

So here we are on Pensacola Beach in the Gulf of Mexico. However, on the other side of this tiny strip of land is the sound and mysteriously some of the sound is a bay and another part becomes a bayou. definitions please!
Bay: an indentation of a shoreline larger than a cove but smaller than a gulf
Gulf: an arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land; larger than a bay
Sound: a large ocean inlet or deep bay
Bayou: a relatively minor, sluggish waterway or estuarial creek through lowlands or swamps, generally tidal or a slow imperceptible current flow

and for everything about Red Tides: http://isurus.mote.org/~mhenry/rtupdate.phtml