Thanks a million to Don Silcock ( ) for letting us use his incredible photos! You'll be able to learn about, and directly observe, the very latest research on these endangered animals from world experts – while enjoying the fantastic diving :Dįull details on the trip (19–27th Jan 2024, from $4,050) are here: This particular trip is extra special, as MMF will be collaborating with Madalena Cabral from Pelagios Kakunjá, who's aiming to deploy satellite tags on the mantas as part of her PhD research. The diving around this remote archipelago is amongst the best in the universe*, and it's an iconic area for giant oceanic manta rays. We've got an AMAZING dive trip coming up in Jan 2024! The co-founders of MMF, Andrea Marshall and Simon Pierce, are hosting a dive / research expedition to Socorro, off the Pacific coast of Mexico. **Before someone says 'but now the fishers will know where to look!', the team are actively working on conservation measures :) *Cos they look like someone smooshed a triceratops and stuck fins on it. (I've stolen the photo below from Andrea Marshall, taken in Mozambique :) ) Congrats to the Djibouti Whale Shark Project and collaborators, incl MMF research associate Dr David Robinson, for the discovery! Personally, these are one of my absolute fav animals, so it's great to see new scientific work on the species. Overfishing has pushed them to Critically Endangered (= over 80% decline) around the world, so it's fantastic to identify the remaining hotspots and ensure their protection**. These truly weirdly awesome rays grow big (to ~9 ft), and are one of the most valuable species in the global fin trade. Our friends working in Djibouti have just shown that the Gulf of Tadjoura is one of the few areas where bowmouth guitarfish – or as I prefer to call them, Rayosaurus* – can be consistently seen! #PalmBeachFlorida #FloridaBeaches #Mantas #MarinePollution #GhostFishing #ResponsibleFishing #Ghostgear #OceanAwareness #SaveOurOcean #MantaRays #BeachCleanup #GhostFishingGear #MarineWaste #OceanConservation #MarineEducation #OceanEducation #MarineConservation Let's work together to give manta rays and other marine life the best shot at a healthy future. We can all do our part to protect these amazing creatures by being careful around the ocean and reporting any animals in distress. They've put up signs at piers and are also asking the general public to become citizen scientists by reporting any manta ray sightings to their team. The Florida Manta Project is working to educate anglers on how they can minimize fishing interactions with manta rays, and hopefully avoid them all together. Unfortunately, it’s become all too common to find mantas with fishing-related entanglements and injuries in Florida. The team managed to remove most of the line, but the manta is still stuck with a hook embedded in it. Scuba divers and snorkelers usually encounter the manta rays from the surface to 80 feet of depth.□ Sad news from Vicky Fong of the #FloridaMantaProject who found a juvenile male manta ray with a ton of fishing gear tangled around it. birostris, also called “pelagic” manta rays are rarely seen.īased on current scientific observation, we know that coastal manta rays can go deeper than 700 feet (214 m) for short periods of time, but they spend most of their time in shallower waters. The family of manta rays that roam the waters of the coast of the Big Island, Hawaii are considered M. We don’t know yet if Loulou is an outlier, or if mantas actually swim further than we thought they did! However, we recently spotted Loulou Ray in two different locations around the Big Island, located 55 miles from each other. The “ Kona family” we know well (reef mantas who live around Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii) is most frequently observed at 3 different manta ray viewing sites around Kona. Until recently, we believed the reef mantas’ home range would be approximately 90 square miles (145 km²), which is roughly 30 miles up and down the coast and 3 miles offshore. We don’t have much (if any) official data on migration patterns or swimming ranges of any type of manta ray.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |