Mantas and Cameras - How to Lose and then Re-Acquire a $5000 Rig

For some underwater shooters Canon 5D Mark II luck is all in the cephalic lobes:

A Ray of Hope for Manta Rays in Brazil

Dr Andrea Marshall, also known as Queen of the Mantas from the BBC’s 2009 documentary film, has attached a satellite tag to a giant 4meter manta ray off the coast of South America. This ambassador for Brazilian manta ray conservation is the first manta ray in the Southern Atlantic Ocean to be satellite tagged and another first for Andrea, who originally discovered and tagged this second species of manta ray, Manta birostris, in 2009 in Mozambique.

The tagging is a fundamental part of a comparative worldwide research campaign called ‘Ray of Hope’ funded by the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) and conducted by the Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF), which is investigating the behaviour and movement patterns of the newly-described giant manta ray. Andrea and colleagues Dr. Simon Pierce and Dr. Juerg Brunnschweiler are travelling to several locations across the globe, teaming up with local researchers or dive operators along the way to locate these mysterious and severely understudied mantas. In Brazil Andrea is collaborating with the Laje Viva Institute and researchers from their ‘Mantas of Brazil’ project.

“This achievement is a piece of manta research history but more than that it is the start of my collaborative work in South America on this species which is currently the only research being conducted on manta rays in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a really important step in trying to understand how this species uses the coastline of Brazil, if it travels distances offshore, where their seasonal movements take them and what threats they face on their journeys,” said Andrea.

The tag was deployed last week on a large mature male at Laje de Santos, the largest documented aggregation site for the Manta birostris species in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, and is programmed to stay on the manta ray for 180 days. For the next six months the tag will accompany the manta on its journey through the oceans, functioning like a mini-lab and storing data critical to the investigation. As well as recording the water temperature through which the manta swims and the depths the animal reaches, it also records the light levels and its GPS position every time it breaks the surface, information used in determining the individual’s actual track.

Almost nothing is known about the lives of manta rays in South America and Andrea hopes the study will help answer a series of questions aimed at providing invaluable information for managing the region’s manta ray population and better protecting them from fishing pressure and other human induced threats such as shipping traffic. “As we continue to learn more about these ocean giants, I also continue to learn and grow as a scientist. Patience is an important skill in field research as is the determination to see difficult projects through to completion. In the end, persistence will pay off, and although we sometimes feel that we are racing against time, we are ultimately at the mercy of the animals that we study and the elements of nature. Sometimes sitting back and waiting for them to come to us is the only solution,” said Andrea.

The research is funded through the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF).

Brian Darvell - Sounding The Alarm

We have come to respect and appreciate Brian Darvells "on the ground" reports of continuing Asian demand for sharks. This week he added a comment to Goblin Girls post that was shocking in it's detail.

Mantas are in trouble. Here's his first person report:

The Chinese slaughter mantas in their thousands for their gill rakers for use in traditional 'medicine'.

The largest Chinese medicine market in China, in Guangzhou - a whole block of shops on three floors of the most amazing things. These included literally tonnes of dried seahorses - shops-full at a time, and similarly manta gills, 10s of thousands that I saw - boxes piled high.

This is NOT a small, subsistence market, by any means. It is a massive, commercial operation that somehow has evaded notice. It can be added to the foul practices of using bear bile, tiger bone, seahorses etc etc for the magical, culturally-sanctioned, devastation of wildlife of all kinds. If it moves - eat it.

It is about time that the centrality of Chinese activity in these matters was addressed properly, instead of pussyfooting around trying not to offend. Culture or long tradition is no longer an acceptable defence for anything, anywhere, now where commercial exploitation is involved. True subsistence use is hard to find, and altogether negligible in impact.

Goblin girl... on eating manta rays!

Of all the shark related news I get in my inbox, this article made me gasp: Manta rays next on restaurant menus as shark populations plummet . Then I started to wonder why I had such a strong reaction and the simple answer is "they are so beautiful!". How utterly banal, coming from me... One of my highest dreams is to dive with mantas. So far I've only seen them in the aquarium in Lisbon, Portugal, but ever since I first saw them in books at the age of 4, I've been devoted to them.

I once went to Norway to upgrade some electronic tracking equipment. The Norwegians have a different view, of for example whales, from many other countries. They still hunt whales and eat whale steak. My Norwegian colleagues tried to provoke me by saying "we now have so many dolphins, we should hunt them and eat them as well!". To their utter frustration I just answered "go ahead, but stay off the sharks", and then the discussion died out.

Many people will probably not share my ideas, but I have struggled so many years now for sharks, that I'm fed up with all "rescue operations" of "cute"animals. (Ok, I have a soft spot for manatees, I'll admit as much.) Tigers kill more people every year than shark does - still people fight for tigers right to existence. And the friendly dolphins who helps people back to shore... what about all the people that they might take further out from shore - who will be missed as "drowned" and never lives to tell that story?! I even know a guy who nearly got raped by a dolphin! And I've seen terrible footage of a group of dolphins killing an other dolphin from an other specie by taking turns blocking it's blow hole!

I'm not against any animals as such. I only think that it's better to work really hard for something that you believe in. Me, I'm into sharks. Sooo many others are doing their best to help other animals that are their favorites. I will certainly not go out with a harpoon myself, but I stay away from dolphin friendly tuna, since I know that it is much more dangerous to sharks and other sea creatures. The problem is to find dolphin unfriendly tuna these days, so I tend to eat tuna only once in a while.

But as you can see... even I can be banal, wanting to save something just because it's beautiful!

Underwater Photography-Capturing "The Moment"

The world of underwater digital photography is fast becoming an epic horse race. At the front of the pack you have several well known faces and shooters who make a living from the imagery they bring to the world.

For the most part it's stunning stuff. Case in point Ethan Gordons recent work in Scuba Diving Magazine on Chuuk Lagoon. Almost every month new images surface that take your breath away from the pack leaders.

Then there are guys like Derek Heasley who are less well known but shoot with a cool eye towards brilliance. It's not easy to "capture the moment" when it happen with wildlife. But rest assured when the "moment" happens-if Derek is within lens shot of it, he'll nail it.

Here's his website Sea Pixels