Cyclone Grant 2022 Update - La Paz Expedition

September 2022

Isabella Ossiander is an MSc marine biology student from the University of Santa Cruz, currently working with our affiliate project Mobula Conservation in Mexico. She was the successful recipient of the 2022 cyclone grant, which has enabled her to begin research investigating the prevalence of seafood mislabelling of threatened mobulids in markets of Mexico.

In 2004, the Mexican government prohibited the capture, trade, and consumption of mobulids, taking a huge step in the conservation of these species. However, mobulids are vulnerable to bycatch, and there is concern that these animals are being sold in the fish markets of Baja under the label “mantarraya”, which is a general label used for any ray species sold in Baja.

Her objective is to find out whether mobulids are being sold illegally, and if so, where. By collecting 20 samples per month of mantarraya fillets from supermarkets and grocery markets, she will extract DNA from each sample to determine the species of each fillet, and determine whether the mobulid genes are detected.

In this video, follow her journey to La Paz, Mexico, where she leads the pilot field expedition of the project and collects the first samples from visits to 27 markets. In July, during the expedition, a ban on selling cartilaginous fish, which includes sharks and rays, was enforced in Mexico, however, Isabella still sadly found samples of mantarraya in the markets! The samples have been sent back to the lab in Santa Cruz for sequencing, so stayed tuned for further updates to find out whether mobulid species were present in these samples.

We would like to say a huge thank you to the cyclone members for supporting crucial research projects like these, which are so important for filling in data gaps about the conservation status of mobulids.