The Cyclone Grant Winner 2021 – Papua New Guinea

June 2021

In Papua New Guinea (PNG), gender inequality is a prevalent issue. However, the Coral Sea Foundation’s (CSF) Sea Women of Melanesia (SWoM) programme has proven effective at empowering indigenous women with scuba diving and marine science skills so they can take an active role in creating marine protected areas, raising community awareness, and monitoring their own coral reefs. The waters of Milne Bay contain exceptional marine ecosystems and biodiversity and are one of the few places where Endangered oceanic manta rays (Mobula birostris) and Vulnerable reef manta rays (M. alfredi) can be studied together. However, there is currently no manta research project in this unique location.

We will collaborate with SWoM to incorporate valuable manta research into their programme to produce clear practical conservation outputs;

Establish a team of skilled and knowledgeable SWoM manta researchers.

Identify key manta ray aggregation sites, including both foraging and cleaning sites in the Milne Bay Province.
Establish the baseline population size for reef and oceanic manta rays through a population dynamics study.

Build a comprehensive regional manta ray database.

We hope that connecting SWoM with charismatic manta rays will help to motivate and engage them and their communities with the wider message of marine ecosystem conservation.

Following a successful pilot study, this new citizen science programme will continue training and paying indigenous women to conduct surveys of the manta populations of Milne Bay Province. In the short-term, this project will enable us to build our regional database of individual manta rays, allowing us to start examining population dynamics, structure, and movements. This will be a vital first step in establishing a long-term manta research and conservation project in PNG, which will work holistically with local stakeholders and government to learn more about the ecology of and threats to these isolated and understudied manta rays.