These fish are also impacted by ship strikes, climate change, pollution, tourism, and ingestion of microplastics. ![]() They can quickly drown when caught in nets or on lines. These rays are also endangered by entanglement and bycatch in other fisheries. Thousands are killed every year just for their gill rakes. The demand for gill rakes, which are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, is incredibly high. They are fished for their meat, skin, and gill rakes. Overfishing is a major problem for mantas. ![]() Sadly, that doesn’t mean these graceful creatures are out of danger. Nowadays fishermen know that manta rays are harmless creatures that neither pose a threat, nor are competition to their livelihood. While feeding they open their mouths wide and flatten their cephalic fins to help channel the plankton into their mouth. They swim slowly around a school of plankton to bunch it together and then dive quickly through the ball to feed. Some commonly eaten prey includes zooplankton, krill, shrimp, and crab larvae. Manta rays are filter feeders, and only feed on very small organisms. These congregation areas include the Similan Islands in Thailand, New Zealand’s North Island, Isla de Plata in Ecuador, Laje de Santos Marine Park in Brazil, and Isla Holbox in Mexico. Giant mantas are more widespread, but have seasonal “hotspots” where they are more common. In the eastern Pacific Ocean reef mantas can be found from Japan to New South Wales, and from Hawaii to French Polynesia. In general, they range no farther north than North Carolina in the United States, and no farther south than New Zealand. These two species can be found in all major oceans in tropical and subtropical climates. The giant oceanic manta ray is more common in areas closer to coastlines, while the reef manta ray is found mostly in open ocean. This means that they don’t live in close proximity to shore (coastal), or to the ocean bottom (demersal). The two species have slightly different habitat preferences, but both are pelagic. These rays are native to oceans in tropical and subtropical climates, and avoid ocean temperatures below 68º F. They have also been known to perform full somersaults in the air! Other times they twist and reenter the water tail first. Sometimes they jump in a perfect arc, entering the water face first. Leaping Styles – These jumps above the water, known as breaches, come in a number of forms.It could be to attract a mate, communicate with other rays, escape predators, or knock off parasites. Jump For Joy – Mantas are well known for their ability to leap above the water, which must have been terrifying for fishermen that were afraid of them! Scientists have a few theories as to why they perform these aerial acrobatics, but no one is quite sure why they jump. ![]() They still possess a vestigial remnant of this barb as a short spine, but it is not used for stinging.
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