MANTA TRUST WEBINARS

Manta Ray Q&A

Dr. Guy Stevens

The Manta Trust CEO and Co-founder, Dr. Guy Stevens, will be answering a ranging of questions we’ve received over the last few days from you. Guy has been researching manta rays in the Maldives and around the world for 15 years making him one of the foremost experts on these species.

Maldivian Manta Rays

Tam Sawers

The Maldives is home to the world's largest population of reef manta rays and some of the biggest aggregations ever recorded. Tam will discuss some of the findings from 15 years’ worth of population monitoring.

Mini Mantas in the Azores

Ana Sobral

Ana moved to the Azores Islands to start her MSc degree in 2011. She quickly realised that this was one of the few places in the world where Sicklefin devil rays gather in large groups, and in 2012 she founded a citizen science-based project Manta Catalog Azores. Ana is now a PhD candidate at the University of the Azores, and for the past eight years she has been collecting data on the occurrence of manta and devil rays in the Azores, with the precious collaboration of dive operators and citizen scientists.

Filming Blue Planet 2

Roger Munns

Roger is an Emmy and BAFTA award-winning cameraman. He was one of the principal cinematographers on David Attenborough’s Blue Planet 2 and has worked extensively on other landmark BBC natural history productions such as Life, Life Story and Seven Worlds - One Planet, and is a patron of the Manta Trust. He will be sharing behind the scenes insights from three weeks of filming a clownfish for Blue Planet II.

Please click here to watch the BBC Blue Planet 2 clip Roger filmed and is talking about.

Mantas in the Mexican Caribbean

Karen Fuentes

In 2013 Karen started the Manta Caribbean Project and started a collaboration with the Manta Trust in 2015. The project works with communities for conservation purposes, as well as carries out research to have a better understanding of the mobulid rays that inhabit the Caribbean region. The Mexican Caribbean is one of the locations you can find the potential third species of manta ray; the Caribbean Manta (Mobula cf. birostris).

Do mantas have buddies?

Dr. Annie Murray

Manta rays can be seen aggregating in large numbers, yet little is understood about their social interactions and the roles which individuals adopt within communal living. Based in Baa Atoll, the Maldives, famous for the mass aggregations of mantas observed in Hanifaru Bay MPA, Annie conducted her PhD research focusing on these relationships, the various factors affecting manta sociality and the formation and structure of groups during foraging events.

Manta ray reproduction and growth

Niv Froman

Niv is currently completing a PhD on the reproductive ecology of the reef manta population of the Maldives at Cambridge University. This exciting new project aims to shed new light into the mysterious life of these gentle giants and aid to improve their conservation status. In this talk, Niv will briefly introduce us to the reproductive strategies of manta rays and explain how his research is helping shading light onto some of the mysterious aspects of manta ray’s reproduction and growth.

Manta hide and seek in New Zealand

Lydia Green

New Zealand’s population of oceanic manta rays (Mobula birostris) is so elusive, no one knows whether they’re resident or seasonal visitors to the country.

Lyds founded Manta Watch New Zealand (MWNZ) in 2017 to understand more with citizen science, collaborative research and historic sightings data. Lyds has studied mantas in Fiji, Mexico and the Maldives among many big blue adventures. Drawing on 15 years in marine science and her Marine Biology (Hons) degree she’s well placed to lead New Zealand’s manta ray discoveries.

Lessons from the field

Kaitlyn Zerr

Growing up in a small farm town in Canada, Kaitlyn dreamed of becoming a marine biologist. Having only stood in the ocean once, she wasn’t exactly sure why she was pulled towards this career choice but by placing one foot in front of the other, she was led on the adventure of a lifetime. In 2018 she ended up in the middle of the Indian Ocean studying the world’s largest population of reef manta rays in Baa Atoll, Maldives. Reflecting on how she got here and the memorable experiences along the way, this webinar is for those hoping to enter the field of marine conservation or for anyone who is thinking about doing something that seems impossible.

Manta Expeditions

Niv Froman

Since 2014 Niv has also been in charge of managing and organising all Manta Expeditions, citizen science trips that focus specifically on getting people in close proximity to manta rays, whale sharks and other ‘wish list’ marine species, while imparting expert knowledge, skills and collecting meaningful data critical to help furthering our understanding and conservation status of manta rays.

Saving Devils

Isabel Ender

Growing up a on a beach in Senegal, Isabel’s first memories are of falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean. It was the most beautiful lullaby, and she is convinced her love for the ocean began right there. Over five years Isabel led a global manta and devil ray conservation program funded by the Shark Conservation Fund, Save Our Seas Foundation and the IUCN. This included work across research, policy and community outreach. In her talk she discusses the challenges and milestones faced towards achieving global protection for manta and devil rays, and why we can’t stop there.

Gone with the Wind

Joanna Harris

Joanna’s passion for manta ray conservation has continued through her master’s degree in marine science and then to her PhD at the University of Plymouth where her research on the biophysical drives of the species distribution patterns in the Indian Ocean will help improve current conservation strategies. During this talk she will discuss the seasonal distribution and habitat use by reef manta rays in the Maldives and the implications for conservation.

Manta Rays Down Under

Asia Haines

Project Manta was established in 2007 as a multidisciplinary research group focused on understanding the biology and ecology of manta rays in Australian waters. Asia joined the team in 2013 to manage the east coast sighting database and citizen science outreach. During this time the group has reported on a number of interesting findings from this part of the world, including the longest documented movement for a reef manta ray and the world's only known PINK manta ray! Asia is about halfway through her PhD looking into spatial and behavioural ecology of reef manta rays in Australia and beyond.

Manta rays of the Thai Andaman Sea

Jamie Monmaneerat

Jamie first learnt about manta rays during her time as Miss Scuba International 2012. Knowing they were threatened, she vowed to protect these species to the best of her abilities. In 2014 she spent 3 months as a volunteer for Maldivian Manta Ray Project. The time in Maldives inspired Jamie to start a manta conservation project in her home country, Thailand. Thailand Manta Project was founded in 2015 with the goal to better understand manta populations in Thai waters, increase their local protection, as well as raise awareness and educate people about ocean conservation. Jamie will share what is it like to be diving with the giants in the Thai Andaman Sea.

Monitoring the Mesoamerican Reef

Marisol Rueda Flores

Born in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Marisol moved to La Paz, B.C.S. in 2005 to do her MSc on Marine Resources Management with blue whales (CICIMAR-IPN). Since then she had been working in environmental education and conservation programs in La Paz, B.C.S., Costa Rica and Galapagos Islands with cetaceans, marine invertebrates, sea turtles and tortoises, among others. In 2010 she became Mexico’s Coordinator for the Healthy Reefs Initiative, focusing on the conservation of the Mesoamerican Reef. In 2017, she became the Communications Consultant for the initiative and her main scope is the conservation and adaptive management of the Mesoamerican Reef, specializing in fish training and monitoring with AGRRA methodology. Whenever she has free time you can find her exploring the bottom of the ocean or traveling around the world to meet new places and cultures. In her talk she takes us through the monitoring and health of the Mesoamerican Reef, actions taken for its conservation and what can we do from home to improve its status.

World Oceans Day 2020

Dr. Guy Stevens & Sarah Richard

World Oceans Day 2020 happened on June 8th and to celebrate it, we hosted a webinar chat between Dr. Guy Stevens (CEO and co-founder of the Manta Trust) and Sarah Richard (founder of Girls That Scuba). Sarah is an avid scuba diver and passionate about marine conservation, she is also a patron of the Manta Trust. Sarah and Guy will be chatting all about how they got into diving and marine conservation, their favourite underwater encounters, and how we can tie sustainable dive tourism and marine conservation together, followed by a short Q&A session.

Australia’s Other Reef: Ningaloo

Ocean Collective Media (Tom Cannon & Sam Lawrence)

Tom and Sam are professional underwater photographers currently living and working on the world heritage listed Ningaloo Reef on Australia’s isolated west coast. Although it doesn’t share the same notoriety as the well-known Great Barrier Reef, the Ningaloo lays claim to an incredible diversity of marine life including what many believe to be the highest diversity of shark species found anywhere on the planet. During their seminar Tom and Sam will explain in more details what makes the Ningaloo such a unique place and talk you through their time documenting life on the Ningaloo and some of the truly incredible encounters they have experienced.

Contrasting Worlds for Mobulids and Researchers

Betty Laglbaeur & Beth Faulkner

Beth has been working with the Maldivian Manta Ray project since 2017, she first joined as the project manager for Laamu Atoll before moving to Baa. In between her time at the different Maldivian bases, Beth went to assist Betty with her research for the Mobula Project, Indonesia. Betty is the founder of this project and collects data on mobulid rays in Indonesia and the fishing pressures they face. During their time working together both Beth and Betty learnt a lot from one another and made many memories whilst in the field. In this webinar we will hear about the differences between these projects in the Maldives and Indonesia, pressures that mobulids face in these parts of the world and some of the memories that Beth and Betty made whilst working together.

The Truth About Tagging

Dr. Mark Erdmann

Dr. Mark Erdmann is the Vice President of Asia Pacific Marine Programs for Conservation International, and also serves as a scientific advisor to the Manta Trust. Mark is a coral reef ecologist (Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley) who lived and worked for 23 years in Indonesia, though is now based in New Zealand. Though his work is now largely focused on the management of marine protected areas, his continuing research interests include reef fish taxonomy and elasmobranch conservation science, and for the past decade he’s been deeply involved in acoustic and satellite telemetry studies of reef and oceanic manta rays, whale sharks, thresher sharks and white sharks. In this talk Mark will offer an overview of the science and field practicalities of manta tagging, aiming to provide a detailed understanding of how tagging studies can provide invaluable data to inform manta conservation policy.

Conservation Lessons

Dr. Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Dr. Robert Rubin, and Michael Scholl

Join this webinar with Dr. Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Dr. Robert Rubin, and Michael Scholl, three world renowned marine ecologists and conservationists as they talk about their experiences over the years in the marine conservation field, what has been successful and where they see the prioritises should lie moving forward.