The start of Baa manta season: introducing the new interns

July 2022

The manta season has been off to a great start here in Baa Atoll with the team already sighting over a hundred mantas during one survey at Hanifaru Bay. At the beginning of June, two new interns joined the team to prepare for the upcoming season and are sharing their experiences so far.

Sophie Owsianka, a BSc (Hons) Marine Biology and Coastal Ecology graduate from the UK, and Chathu Munasinghe, a BSc (Hons) Zoology graduate from Sri Lanka, are the new Manta Trust interns for the next three months at Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru and are looking forward to being part of the Manta Trust team.

Sophie has previous experience working with elasmobranchs and is excited to gain more skills in conservation, research, and field work, before starting a Master’s degree in Marine Environmental Protection in September. Chathu is looking forward to gaining more amazing experiences and knowledge of the enigmatic reef manta ray species and local ecosystems before heading back to finish her Master’s thesis on climate change impacts on coral reefs in Sri Lanka.

Chathu taking IDs of reef manta rays. ©Sophie Owsianka

Sophie with bottom feeding manta rays in Hanifaru Bay. ©Beth Faulkner

These are Sophie and Chathu’s experiences as interns so far:

Since arriving at the beginning of June, we have been spending as much time as possible searching for reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) at our survey sites. Whilst on the research boat, we have been focussing on improving our freediving techniques, taking photos of the mantas’ unique spot patterns in order to identify individual rays, identifying other megafauna and plankton that are present, deploying remote sensing devices to record any manta sightings whilst the team is not in the water, noting environmental conditions, and learning to read the mantas’ behaviour. We are now familiar with the cleaning stations and survey sites and are starting to recognise some of the frequent manta visitors in the Baa Atoll area. On a few lucky occasions, we’ve even had the privilege of swimming alongside some whale sharks too.

Whale shark and reef manta rays feeding together. ©Sophie Owsianka

Documenting injuries like this one on Coco. ©Chathu Munasinghe

When not spending time on the research boat, we have been in the office using the Manta Trust’s extensive database of individual mantas to identify who we’ve seen on our surveys, analysing data from the remote sensing videos to check for the presence of manta rays without human disturbance, and assisting with Manta On-Call trips for the guests. During our time off, we have been enjoying exploring Landaa Giraavaru, visiting neighbouring local islands, paddle boarding, scuba diving, practicing yoga and static apnea training.

Hanifaru Bay in Baa Atoll is home to the largest aggregations of reef manta rays recorded anywhere in the world! ©Beth Faulkner

Recently, we passed the Hanifaru Guide exam, allowing us to lead trips to the Marine Protected Area and ensure visitors have safe interactions with the mantas, as well as passing on our knowledge of the species and the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. We had our first experience of swimming through clouds of plankton with over one hundred manta rays feeding at Hanifaru Bay last week, due to the full moon tides bringing an abundance of plankton to the bay - we are certainly looking forward to more days like this in the next couple of months!

Moving forward, we are excited to further develop our skills and understanding of both individual manta ray personalities and population dynamics to better protect them in the future.