The Majesty of Manta Rays

Manta rays belong to a family of eleven species of plankton eating rays. Nine of them are mobula rays while only two are manta rays. The two manta ray species being the giant oceanic manta (Manta birostris) and the resident reef manta (Manta alfredi).

The oceanic manta reaches 7 m in width while the reef manta reaches 5.5 m. They are dark brown or black on top while mostly white underneath. With this colouring they are well camouflaged in the water both when spotted from the bottom against the bright sky or when viewed on from the top against the dark background of the deep sea.

Manta rays are an endangered species listed in the "vulnerable" category of the red list of the international union for conservation of nature. Primary threat is fishing bycatch. Among other threats is deterioration of their habitat and unregulated tourism. Pollution of the oceans, floating waste, and disturbance by mass tourism are main reasons for manta populations to disappear.

The infographic on the right shows the fisheries value of a dead manta compared to the value of a manta alive over its entire lifetime. Hence, the economic value of controlled and mild tourism is by orders of magnitude higher than the direct fishing income.

There are several conservation organisations taking care of manta rays specifically.

Manta watch: this is a project which found a low-cost solution to collect data around manta occurrence by collecting photographs from scuba divers world wide including location of where pictures have been shot. Identifying unique patterns on the mantas' skin allows to keep track of manta movements. - For all the scuba divers, please contribute your images of manta rays to this innovative project and help to enrich their database.

Manta trust: this is an organisation doing research around manta rays raising awareness and providing education to the genreal public and community stakeholders.

Manta pacific research foundation: is a research foundation to study manta rays in their natural habitat.

Manta ray at dive spot Magic Mountain, Misool Raja Ampat

Manta rays are majestic swimmers and very photogenic. However, they are difficult to capture unless one is at a cleaning station in the reef where they happen to stay a while for removal of parasites by other smaller reef animals.

Manta rays are rather shy animals. Hence, it is difficult to get into a situation where they come and stay close enough for a spectacular underwater photography.

Collection of manta ray images at 500px

Since manta rays are plankton eaters also visibility in the water is usually not too good upon manta encounters which is another challenge for an underwater photographer.

A selection of my own manta pictures can be found at: link

A search at 500px yields more than 300 underwater images of manta rays. Some of them are really spectacular!