Jessica Pate and colleagues discovered the first manta ray nursery in Florida’s waters. It’s only the third nursery ever found globally.
Pate has seen several mantas with missing fin tips from entangled fishing lines, as well as “mantas that look like Christmas trees” with wings covered in jigs and lures. A survey of nearly 200 recreational anglers in Palm Beach County, Fla., found that that
, and even fewer knew how to prevent accidentally hooking one, Pate and colleagues reported in the June 2021However, 98 percent of surveyed anglers supported protecting the rays. The Florida Manta Project has since launched an outreach campaign that aims to build awareness of best practices, such as keeping an eye on the water while fishing and reeling in fishing lines until mantas have safely passed by.
Sometimes, though, what appears to be a manta might be one of its relatives. In 2018, a diver sent Pate a photo of a manta that turned out to be a sicklefin devil ray — the first confirmed sighting of this species in the western Atlantic Ocean. Sicklefin devils are similar in size and shape to mantas, but they tend to be a golden-brown instead of black.The photo had Pate wondering how many past manta sightings had in fact been devil rays.
Because devil rays have been so understudied, “there are still huge knowledge gaps in their biology, ecology and life history,” says ecologist Joshua Stewart of Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute in Newport. That makes it challenging to create management strategies that might help conserve the species. Research like Pate’s is essential for supporting “science-based conservation,” he says.
Pate hopes that her team’s continued efforts will help protect majestic mantas and their cousins, she says, by making the rays “as iconic and recognizable as manatees and sea turtles.”
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