MessageToEagle.com - They are beautiful, remarkably elegant and extremely large oceanic creatures - named
manta rays.
One cannot say that they swim like fish; they rather gracefully glide through the watery realm.
They are harmless to humans and lacks the stinger of the better-known stingray.
They are also very tolerant with divers. Manta rays usually swim in pairs, and although they seem frightening,
manta rays are so gentle that many will even let humans pet them. Some experienced divers have actually taken rides
on the backs of these harmless fish.
Another their name is Devilfish, which certainly seems like a reasonable description for an enormous fish
with huge wings and a massively gaping mouth between two cephalic lobes.
For centuries it was thought that the manta ray, or "devilfish," was an evil ocean beast capable of
destroying fishing boats and devouring people.
In fact, the manta ray is one of the gentlest creatures in the sea whose only wish, it seems, is to float
peacefully in the water sucking in mouthfuls of water in search of its favorite food -- plankton.
A ground-breaking study on a mysterious ocean giant: the manta ray, is completed!
Listed as "Vulnerable", the manta ray has become increasingly threatened by fishing and accidental capture
and now needs more protection!
Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Exeter (UK), and the Government of Mexico
used the latest satellite telemtry to track the open-ocean journeys of the world's largest ray.
It's very important study because "almost nothing is known about the movements and ecological needs of the manta ray,
one of the ocean's largest and least-known species," Dr. Rachel Graham, director of WCS's Gulf and Caribbean Sharks
and Rays Program, said.
Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Exeter, and the Government of
Mexico have published the first-ever satellite telemetry study on the manta ray, the world?s largest ray species.
The findings will help inform ecosystem-based management plans for the rays, which are in decline worldwide due to fishing and accidental capture.
Photo Credit: Photo : Kaile Tsapis
Mantas, the biggest of all rays, usually reach about 6.7 meters (22 feet) but it can even grow up to 25 feet (7.6 meters)
in width, measuring from tip of gigantic pectoral fin to tip of gigantic pectoral fin, with a weight of 2,300 kilograms (5,100 lb).
The manta ray possesses the highest brain to body ratio of all sharks and rays and gives birth to live young, usually
one or two "pups" every one or two years.
"Our real-time data illuminate the previously unseen world of this mythic fish and will help to shape management and
conservation strategies for this species," Dr. Graham added.
Manta Ray. Photo Credits: Jon Hanson
The research team attached satellite transmitters to manta rays off the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula over a 13-day
period. The tracking devices were attached to the backs of six individuals -- four females, one male, and one juvenile.
"The satellite tag data revealed that some of the rays traveled more than 1,100 kilometers during the study period,"
said Dr. Matthew Witt of the University of Exeter's Environment and Sustainability Institute.
"The rays spent most of their time traversing coastal areas plentiful in zooplankton and fish eggs from spawning events."
Like baleen whales and whale sharks, manta rays are filter feeders that swim through clouds of plankton with mouths agape.
The research team also found that the manta rays spent nearly all their time within Mexico's territorial waters (within 200
miles of the coastline), but only 11.5 percent of the locations gathered from the tagged rays occurred within
marine protected areas. And the majority of ray locations were recorded in major shipping routes in the region; manta
rays could be vulnerable to ship strikes.
"Studies such as this one are critical in developing effective management of manta rays, which appear to be declining
worldwide," said Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, Director of WCS's Ocean Giant Program.
Manta rays are apparently declining in the Caribbean and in other tropical regions of the world's oceans, in part because they
are captured for shark bait and a demand for gill rakers (small, finger-like structures that filter out the ray's minute
zooplankton prey) in the traditional Chinese medicinal trade.
The paper on study led by Dr. Rachel Graham was published May 11 in the online journal PLoS ONE.
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