A Ray to Remember
February 2019
Sharing the water with a manta is always a special experience but, just as with people, sometimes you meet an individual that inspires you even more than the rest! Kanina Harty, Central and South America Database Manager for the Manta Trust, tells us about one such encounter she had whilst visiting Ecuador in 2018.
I was expecting the weather to be tropical as Ecuador is on the equator and I had left an unseasonably hot summer back in Europe, but it was cold, and the skies were a moody grey. These, however, are the ideal conditions for manta rays in the South American Pacific Ocean! Oceanic manta rays (Mobula birostris), otherwise known as giant mantas, make special visits to Isla de la Plata off the west coast of Ecuador each year during August and September. Despite the cold, the locals call it summer as it doesn’t rain as much as when the weather is warm. We’ll have to agree to disagree!
Proyecto Mantas Ecuador is based in the coastal town of Puerto Lopez. Photo by Arabsalam https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
Michel Guerrero, founder of Proyecto Mantas Ecuador, has been diving off this coast for over 20 years and the first manta ID’s in this database date back to 2005. The colder water brings hundreds of manta rays to this small island for around six weeks each year, offering an incredible opportunity to study this iconic species. So, whilst I was there, I spent as much time as possible on the dive boats helping clients to collect manta ID’s, tissue samples and associated data relating to the presence of the mantas. Only by better understanding their behaviour and habitat use can we hope to adequately protect these gentle giants.
The horn-like cephalic fins of an oceanic manta appear stripey when furled-up. Photo by Michel Guerrero.
Each day we would travel to a dive site in Machalilla National Park, known to be a good spot for observing mantas. The hour-long boat ride, all wrapped up with a cup of tea to keep me warm, quickly became routine, but the excitement never wavered. The humpback whale encounters that were had on these journeys were second to none! I never tired of the breaching whale calves, travelling with their mothers to winter breeding grounds. They would come so close to the boat, sometimes spy-hopping to try and get a better look at us.
Kanina staying warm and stylish on route to Isla de la Plata (left) with humpback whales for company (above). Photos by Kanina Harty.
On one particular day, as we were preparing to go scuba diving, a manta came swimming towards the boat as if to tell us to come in. We all thought it was amazing as it was the first time a manta had come so close before we had even touched the water. Six of us carefully slipped into the water and sure enough, as soon as the last person reached the sea-bottom, this beautiful female manta swooped past us again. A few of the divers had only just qualified and this was one of their first dives, so they were completely in awe of the manta coming to look at us. She glided by again, this time slowing to really check us out and swim through our bubbles. It is not fully understood why manta rays like to do this. One theory is that the bubbles help to dislodge remora fish; hitchhikers that attach themselves to manta rays, reducing their swimming efficiency by creating extra drag and irritating the mantas’ skin, sometimes creating sores. This beautiful manta certainly had a lot of remoras in tow! The second theory is that they just really like the sensation of the bubbles on their belly.
Luckily it was a sandy bottom so we could easily sit still and wait for her to come back for more; but when we eventually decided to move on to the nearby cleaning station, our new dive companion chose to come with us. Cleaning stations are areas of reef that large marine creatures, like mantas, turtles and sharks, visit in order to get picked clean of dead skin and parasites by small fish and crustaceans. Throughout the dive we saw four other mantas that were swimming by, and our original manta companion stayed with us for the whole dive. She even came with us back to the boat and kept us company until it was time to get out of the water. We didn’t want to leave her! It was an experience I will never forget.
I never tire of the curiosity of some mantas that I encounter during research dives. Once you look into their eye it makes you feel like you have some sort of connection to them. I saw mantas on 39 out of 44 dives in the National Park! Ecuador’s waters are an important place for oceanic mantas, but the region is fraught with artisanal fishing pressure and rising human impacts. By working collaboratively with some incredible organisations in South America, including Proyecto Mantas Ecuador, the Manta Trust hopes to ensure that these waters are a safe habitat for the mantas to return year after year.
KANINA HARTY
Central & South America Database Manager