Manta rays are most often reported in coastal areas and continental shelves, near seamounts and in upwelling zones. Indeed, the manta rays may be the least understood of the marine mega-vertebrate groups, and one of the last to be satellite tracked. Critical information for conservation planning, such as knowledge on their movements and ecology, are however lacking. They are known to be purposefully and accidentally captured in fisheries operations and populations in the Pacific, Indian Ocean and Caribbean are apparently declining. Recently Manta rays were found to encompass a second species Manta alfredi that ranges throughout the Central Eastern Atlantic and Indo-Pacific and possibly a third species constrained to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. They are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as “Vulnerable” to extinction and included on Appendix I and II of the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals. Manta rays (or devil fish, Manta birostris) are the world's largest batoid fish (reaching a measured disc width of 7.1 m), with slow growth and low fecundity, birthing only one or two live ‘pups’ every one to two years following a gestation period of 12 months. climate change, to marine vertebrates (e.g. Satellite tracking has further provided parameters for models of distribution to enable forecasting of effects of, e.g. The insights afforded by such tracking have provided structure around which conservation frameworks and regulations can be built and an understanding of spatial ecology around which marine protected areas (MPAs) can be established (e.g. Satellite tracking has yielded key information about the life history of marine vertebrates, many of which engage in long migrations (travelling thousands of kilometres) and make deep dives, beyond the temporal and logistical abilities of researchers to follow them. Our results on the spatio-temporal distribution of these enigmatic rays highlight opportunities and challenges to management efforts. Manta rays remained in the Mexican Exclusive Economic Zone for the duration of tracking but only 12% of tracking locations were received from within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The majority of locations were received from waters shallower than 50 m deep, representing thermally dynamic and productive waters.

Satellite-tracked manta rays associated with seasonal upwelling events and thermal fronts off the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico, and made short-range shuttling movements, foraging along and between them. Red listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as ‘Vulnerable’ to extinction, manta rays are known to be subject to direct and incidental capture and some populations are declining. Almost nothing is known about manta ray movements and their environmental preferences, making them one of the least understood of the marine mega-vertebrates. We describe the real-time movements of the last of the marine mega-vertebrate taxa to be satellite tracked – the giant manta ray (or devil fish, Manta birostris), the world's largest ray at over 6 m disc width.

Giant manta ray hawaii