Manta Rays, Maldives
Projects Leaders: Guy Stevens
Read Guy's project blog here.
Background
The Republic of Maldives has a massive population of Manta Rays. It is estimated that the total population for this small country in the middle of the Indian Ocean is likely to exceed ten thousand individuals. In three years of data collection, the Maldivian Manta Ray Project (MMRP) has already identified over 1,500 different mantas with new individuals being sighted on a regular basis.
Maldivian mantas are year round residents, migrating across the country’s 26 atolls with the changing monsoons as they follow the seasonal shifts in their planktonic food source. These nutrient rich waters support huge quantities of marine life and it’s not uncommon to find over 150 manta rays feeding in the shallow surface waters together with half a dozen whale sharks at one of the projects key study sites. These amazing feeding aggregations are one of the world’s natural underwater spectacles, attracting increasing numbers of tourists to this site each year. The MMRP and SOSF are working hard with local stake holders and the Maldivian government to put in place conservation management plans which will protect and preserve this site for the future.
Maldivian mantas are year round residents, migrating across the country’s 26 atolls with the changing monsoons as they follow the seasonal shifts in their planktonic food source. These nutrient rich waters support huge quantities of marine life and it’s not uncommon to find over 150 manta rays feeding in the shallow surface waters together with half a dozen whale sharks at one of the projects key study sites. These amazing feeding aggregations are one of the world’s natural underwater spectacles, attracting increasing numbers of tourists to this site each year. The MMRP and SOSF are working hard with local stake holders and the Maldivian government to put in place conservation management plans which will protect and preserve this site for the future.
Eco-tourism & mantas
This abundance of marine life has made the Maldives one of the top dive destinations in the world and manta rays continue to be one of the ‘must sees’ for most of its visitors. Manta rays are therefore extremely important to tourism in the Maldives, which is by far the largest source of revenue for the country. A recent paper co-authored by the MMRP and other researchers valued direct revenue generation from manta ray diving and snorkelling at US $10 Million annually in the Maldives. However, despite this, manta rays are not yet specifically protected by Maldivian Law and, as natural resources continue to be stretched in this developing nation, the negative associated impacts are increasingly affecting the manta population.
In the field
Guy Stevens
The MMRP is a non-profit research, conservation and education organisation based at the Four Seasons Resorts in the Maldives. The project was founded by Senior Marine Biologist Guy Stevens in 2005 to undertake research on all aspects of the Maldivian manta population, while also working with the government, resort guests, local communities and other visitors to the Maldives to create greater awareness and understanding of these graceful rays. As well as this, Guy also manages a wide variety of other marine conservation, research and educational initiatives within Four Seasons Resorts globally.
Aims & objectives
One of the best ways to understand the population of manta rays in the Maldives is to establish a method of recognising and recording individuals. Using photographic and video identification the project has built a comprehensive database of over 5000 sightings and 1500 individual manta rays within the Maldives. This data is already allowing the project to highlight trends in the mantas behaviour, estimate the population size, plot reproductive patterns and track their movements spatially and temporally. The Project aims to continually expand the database over the coming years.
While the photo-database is a simple and very useful tool for researching manta rays, it does have limitations. It can only tell the researchers where the manta is at the time of the sighting, relying on chance encounters which make it hard to gather consistent large (100’s miles) and fine (10’s miles) scale movements of individuals. To collect this kind of data you have to tag manta rays and the project plans to continue its passive and active acoustic tagging in the coming year, as well as experimenting with the new Fastloc GPS systems which hopefully will be the key to successfully satellite tagging manta rays in the Maldives.
Documenting the mating behaviour and reproductive cycle of the resident mantas is another area that the project is particularly keen to expand its research. Courtship rituals and pregnancies are regularly documented in the Maldives and actual matings have been recorded on several occasions. Furthermore, mating occurs at distinct times of the year at specific locations in the Maldives and it is possible to follow the mating’s and pregnancies of individuals within the population from one year to the next. This is extremely important data because virtually nothing is known about the reproductive strategies of manta rays and the Maldivian Manta Ray Project is in a unique position to document this.
The project also aims to undertake several fieldtrips in the coming year; the first will be to discover new manta feeding and cleaning sites within the Northern Atolls of the Maldives which are still relatively untouched and un-explored. The hope is that some of the individuals seen at the projects present study sites will be sighted so that links can be made between the seasonal feeding grounds. The second trip will be to the Sea of Cortez with Dr. Robert Rubin to document the Giant Manta Rays congregating at the isolated sea mounts of the Revillagigedos Islands.
While the photo-database is a simple and very useful tool for researching manta rays, it does have limitations. It can only tell the researchers where the manta is at the time of the sighting, relying on chance encounters which make it hard to gather consistent large (100’s miles) and fine (10’s miles) scale movements of individuals. To collect this kind of data you have to tag manta rays and the project plans to continue its passive and active acoustic tagging in the coming year, as well as experimenting with the new Fastloc GPS systems which hopefully will be the key to successfully satellite tagging manta rays in the Maldives.
Documenting the mating behaviour and reproductive cycle of the resident mantas is another area that the project is particularly keen to expand its research. Courtship rituals and pregnancies are regularly documented in the Maldives and actual matings have been recorded on several occasions. Furthermore, mating occurs at distinct times of the year at specific locations in the Maldives and it is possible to follow the mating’s and pregnancies of individuals within the population from one year to the next. This is extremely important data because virtually nothing is known about the reproductive strategies of manta rays and the Maldivian Manta Ray Project is in a unique position to document this.
The project also aims to undertake several fieldtrips in the coming year; the first will be to discover new manta feeding and cleaning sites within the Northern Atolls of the Maldives which are still relatively untouched and un-explored. The hope is that some of the individuals seen at the projects present study sites will be sighted so that links can be made between the seasonal feeding grounds. The second trip will be to the Sea of Cortez with Dr. Robert Rubin to document the Giant Manta Rays congregating at the isolated sea mounts of the Revillagigedos Islands.
Project Update: 2009
Over the next 12 months the project will continue to work on all existing aspects of its research while expanding the tagging program and stepping up the pressure on the government to increase manta species and habitat protection in the Maldives. Over the past three years the Manta Project has built a solid foundation which it plans to build on and expand for many years to come. The long term goal of the project is to generate enough funding for its research, education and conservation work directly from the local stakeholders and the Maldivian government. As long as manta rays are valuable to the economy of the Maldives there will be a vested interest in protecting and conserving them for the future.
The Maldivian Manta Project has now been conducting full-time research on the resident population of Maldivian manta rays for the last three years. Coupling research, education and conservation the project continues to uncover new scientific discoveries, shedding light onto these poorly studied animals, while working closely with holidaymakers, local communities and government officials to further the conservation of these amazing animals through education and government legislation.
The Maldivian Manta Project has now been conducting full-time research on the resident population of Maldivian manta rays for the last three years. Coupling research, education and conservation the project continues to uncover new scientific discoveries, shedding light onto these poorly studied animals, while working closely with holidaymakers, local communities and government officials to further the conservation of these amazing animals through education and government legislation.