Could it be that the world’s brainiest fish is able to remember a good deed and show gratitude? An experience by SOSF project leader Guy Stevens certainly seems to point that way. On a recent dive, he found and freed a giant manta caught in some fishing line. Incredibly the manta allowed Guy to swim over to it and cut the line off without struggling or trying to swim away. Guy counts this as one of his most memorable experiences underwater. Guy identified the manta and then finished the dive hoping one day to see the manta again.
And a few days later he did. Diving with a group of other divers Guy saw and recognised the manta he had freed only a few days earlier. Read Guy’s full version of the encounter.
Guy is featured in the BBC series Natural World on Wednesday 11 November 2009 (on BBC2 at 8pm, and afterwards online via BBC I-Player). The film Andrea: Queen of Mantas is about the revelatory manta research by SOSF-funded scientist Andrea Marshall.
Every year in the Maldives I see dozens of manta rays with injuries caused by fishing line entanglements. While the hooks, which often get stuck in the mantas mouth’s, rarely cause any long-term injuries, the trailing line itself is a real killer. Manta rays regularly feed by somersaulting in tight loops; this barrel rolling wraps the trailing line around their bodies where it then begins to cut deep into the animal’s skin, just like a cheese wire. The end result is often the loss of a cephalic fin, major scaring or, for the unlucky individuals which are unable to break free, death.
Watch the video of Guy talking about his amazing manta rescue.
I have heard many stories about entangled mantas approaching divers, circling them as if reaching out for help and then allowing themselves to be cut free, even though considerable pain must be endured by the manta in the process. Many of these stories appear genuine and, if true, the implications for such seemingly ‘clever’ thought processes on the mantas behalf makes you really start to think about the question-How intelligent are manta rays? I have spent hundreds of hours of my life in the water with manta rays and I have always felt there is more going on behind their eyes than is generally believed or known. When I watch a manta and wonder what it is thinking, I get the distinct impression that it is doing the same thing to me.
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