Manta Project Team - occasional presence

Project Manta update 23/04/09
 
Project Manta is a research group headed by Dr Kathy Townsend, Dr Mike Bennett, Dr Scarla Weeks and Dr Anthony Richardson from The University of Queensland and PhD candidates Fabrice Jaine and Lydie Coutourier. Fabrice is creating a model for climate change using the manta rays as a bioindicator species and Lydie's PhD project focuses on the population ecology and biology of manta rays in eastern Australia.

We know that the mantas are in high densities at Lady Elliot Island (LEI) from June till about September and we have mantas at Nth Stradbroke Island (NSI) from October till about March-April. It appears that they migrate annually down the east coast and stop at various locations on the way. Our main focus is "why do they migrate", "where are they going" and "how are they using the various locations?".

At both Lady Elliot Island and Nth Stradbroke Island, we are going to deploy satellite and acoustic tags on the mantas to determine how often they pass these locations and where they are going. We are seriously considering the Solitary Islands as another key study site for this project, but no decision has been made yet.

In parallel, a database of mantas photographs has been started to be used for photo identification. We are using the spot patterns that each manta displays on its underbelly as it is unique for each individual and we've already ID about 190 individuals for Heron Island, Lady Elliot Island and Nth Stradbroke Island. Among these mantas are 46 resights that include 43 mantas resighted twice at LEI, one manta resight twice at NSI and 3 mantas resighted at both LEI and NSI.  So we know that at least some individuals have been travelling along the coast. We are looking forward to look at the manta population found at the Solitary Island to determine if LEI and NSI individuals are travelling south. We've also been given photographs and a video of a potential new born male manta measuring no more than 1.2m at Heron Island!! Hopefully he will survive and give us precious info on the growth rate and aging of manta rays.
 
The Project Manta Team

 
Project Manta update 1/06/09
 
The photo-identification of manta rays is going great thanks to all the photos we've received, we have about 210 mantas identified (and still counting) from Heron Island, Lady Elliot Island, Wolf Rock, North Stradbroke Island, Byron Bay and Solitary Islands Marine Park. So far, 49 rays were resighted twice at the same site, including 17 sighted 3 times, and 5 rays 4 times. We now have 7 mantas positively identified and photographed at both Lady Elliot and North Stradbroke Island. We expect this number to increase and be spread between several sites as more photos are going to be collected from each area.

We are going over to Lady Elliot Island next week to collect more data (plankton, photos, behavioural observations, etc.) and start to tag some manta rays (acoustic). We will also be starting our filming for the documentary on Project Manta with Kaufmann Productions, very exciting! We will keep you update on our progress and results.

Also, we are still working on organising and getting fundings to investigate more manta aggregation sites such as the Solitary Islands Marine Park and Osprey Reef. Project Manta posters and presentation will be ready shortly to be presented during different events and/or on request.
 
The Project Manta Team

 
Project Manta update 1/07/09

We are finally back from our trip to Lady Elliot Island where we had an amazing time with the mantas.

Within the first week of the trip, we manage to deploy acoustic tags on 12 individuals, clean up and put back the 5 listening stations around the island and identify all mantas encountered and photographed.

Weíve also started the Project Manta documentary with Kauffman Production; we manage to get some great footage of tagging and cleaning behaviour and, not surprisingly, are looking forward to the next trip.  Good science and heaps of fun.

The second week was marked by the arrival of our Earthwatch volunteers who participated to our daily research activities. We were mainly focused on photo-identification and zooplankton collection.

Overall, we identified over 100 new individuals in 2 weeks!!! In fact, mantas were so thrilled to see us that weíve been seeing then every single day with up to 20 ID individuals in one dive! About 55 mantas sighted were already in the original database. We now have 318 manta rays identified and included in the database, with a 101 rays resighted twice and 50 sighted 3 times. Six individuals were seen 6 times at Lady Elliot Island back from 2007. Ellama (tagged), Hinun and Erebus seem to be quite local to the island as they have all been sighted every single year since 2007 and they were all spotted several times during our trip.

Thanks to our brand new compact camera, we managed to get some nice HD video recording of cleaning and courtship behaviour that will give us some important information on the habitat use by the rays at LEI.

Zooplankton samples were also obtained while the mantas were feeding at the surface. We are going to look at the abundance and species composition of zooplankton and the nutritional quality to investigate the manta raysí diet.

Thank you to the Earthwatch volunteers, Michelle, Richard and Andy, you were a great asset during this tripÖhelped us a lot and worked hard. Also to the Lady Elliot Island staff, thanks again for your amazing help and service, it was very much appreciated. We are especially grateful to the dive shop staff who have offered to share their records on the weather conditions and manta sightings collected daily since 2008. This kind of information combined with zooplankton data and behavioural examination will provide great insights in the reason underpinning the mass aggregation of mantas at LEI.

The next stages of Project Manta are to (1) place listening stations around North Stradbroke Island (2) gather as many photos as possible from the east coast and see if the same population of mantas observed at LEI is travelling along the coast and (3) work hard to obtain funding to add more study sites to our exciting research.

A new facebook group has been created called Project Manta - The manta rays of eastern Australia. Please feel free to join, spread the word and share your anecdotes, photos and videos.

The Project Manta Team


Project Manta - Lady Elliot Island Field trip November 2009 
 
Once more we had an amazing field trip amongst the mantas at Lady Elliot Island (LEI). During that intensive week, we managed to identify 18 manta rays including 5 new individuals: Sarathani, Evanella, Rhapsody, Habana, and Twilight.
Two of the mantas ID-ed, Maya and Gisela, were tagged from back June. It was great to see them around and gave us a great indication on their degree of site fidelity.  
We also had the opportunity to start the mapping of the cleaning stations (i.e. cleaner fish territories) around the main diving site (Light House Bommie) where mantas are frequently sighted. We also recovered all our 5 listening stations that were deployed around the island. These stations have been placed at specific site under the water to receive and record the acoustic signal sent by tagged mantas when within 500m range from these receivers. We downloaded all the data and placed the listening station back to their original underwater location for more data recording (thanks Kym for all your help above and beyond!). We would like to thank the Australian Acoustic Tagging and Monitoring System (AATMOS) for giving us the opportunity to access this equipment and for sharing its expertise in all things acoustic. All 12 animals that were tagged in June were detected along with a few unknown tags. As Project Manta is part of the AATMOS network, we will be checking with other scientists who are known to have tagged animals in the region. It is through this data sharing that large stretches of the Australian coastline can be monitored.   
We obtained really exciting results from these stations that will help us to determine the spatial and temporal use of the habitats around the island by the mantas, however range testing and ground truthing are needed prior to making any final conclusions.  
During this trip we had the chance to work with 4 new volunteers from Earthwatch, Phil, Dobby, Sarah and Graham. It was a pleasure to meet you and share our common passion for the marine world. Your help was precious during this trip and we wouldn't have been able to achieve so much without you guys! It was great to meet you; we really hope to see you again!!!
If you want to or know someone who would like to become a volunteer for Project Manta during our Lady Elliot Island trip, contact EarthWatch Australia who is one of our valuable sponsors.  
Contact: Andy Donelly
Email: scienceprogram@earthwatch.org.au
Website:http://www.earthwatch.org/australia/exped/townsend.html  
If you have any photos of mantas you would like to share with us, please sent them to:
Email: l.couturier@uq.edu.au or manta.lydie@gmail.com
We need the date, location and name of photographer for each photo sent.



Now we know! There are OFFICIALLY at least 2 manta species!
Formerly thought to be a single species (Manta birostris), recent research, conducted by Dr Andrea Marshall in Mozambique, showed that there are at least two different species of manta rays (Manta alfredi and Manta birostris). Indeed, after a long wait, the article describing the two species got finally published yesterday (1st December) in a scientific journal (Zootaxa). This is the success after hard work and long wait. Congratulation to Andrea and Mike for publishing this vital piece of information about these mysterious giants.  
For your Interest: Marshall AD, Compagno LJV and Bennett MB (2009), Redescription of the genus Manta with resurrection of Manta alfredi (Krefft, 1868) (Chondrichthyes; Myliobatoidei; Mobulidae), Zootaxa, Vol 2301, 1-28pp
Manta alfredi and Manta birostris can be differentiated by few morphological aspects:
      The dorsal coloration: M. birostris has very distinctive white triangular shoulder bars while M.alfredi has more faded and rounder coloration mark in this area.
      The size: M. birostris can grow up to 8 m while M.alfredi tend to grow up to 5m from one wing tip to the other
      Ventral natural markings: M. birostris do not have any spot pattern present between the gill slits and has half moon-shaped markings on both of the last gill slits. M.alfredi can display spot and coloration patterns on most of its ventral surface.
      Caudal spine: M. birostris has a vestigial caudal spine, mostly encased in calcified mass and skin, present on the dorsal surface of the tail just behind the dorsal fin. M.alfredi has no sign of this vestigial caudal spine.
So far only the manta species Manta alfredi have been recorded along eastern Australia, yet it doesn"t mean Manta birostris isn't around.

1/3/10
 Lady Elliot Island Field trip
Once again, we had an amazing field trip at LEI in early February 2010 with our EarthWatch volunteers. We encountered 25 mantas and identified 18 of them including 6 new individuals.
During this trip we also tested our acoustic receivers placed all around the island using a special acoustic tag (called range test tag). We tested whether the receivers can detect the signal from the acoustic tag continuously over a 24hour period and to what range the receiver can detect the signal (around 500m).
We also downloaded the data from the listening stations, which revealed that some of the tagged mantas have been hanging around the island since June with short periods of absence while others totally disappeared after a certain period of time.
This is important as it shows that some mantas may be resident to Lady Elliot Island and use the habitat all year around while others may undertake longer migrations. A big thank you to AATAMS for access to equipment and expertise over the last year.
We also collected data on the temperature, current direction and current strength around the island relative to tidal cycles. This allowed us to confirm that manta rays tend
to start feeding during the outgoing tide at LEI, when the current brings important concentrations of plankton to the island. Several mantas were sighted feeding during the trip and we had the opportunity to swim with them and observe their feeding behaviour.
In addition, plankton tows were conducted all around the island to monitor the plankton community in relation to the different tidal scenarios. Plankton tows were also conducted in the feeding trails of mantas, which shall help us to determine food preferences of these giants.
It was a very busy trip, but it didn"t stop us from having a lot of fun. The baby turtles hatching was an amazing sight to behold!
Our next trip to LEI will be from the 20th of June to the 3rd of July. It will be the peak season for manta rays aggregation. On the program:

• Lots of photos to ID as many mantas as possible (diving and snorkelling)
• Lots of current, temperature and other parameter measurement around the island
• Lots of plankton collection
• Taking tissue sample from manta rays (biopsy) for genetic and diet determination
• Documentary filming
• Acoustic receiver deployment around the island at specific sites
• Satellite tag deployment on mantas

If you would like to become a volunteer for Project Manta at Lady Elliot Island and be part of a great adventure, please contact EarthWatch Australia :
http://www.earthwatch.org/australia/exped/townsend.html
Contact Andy Donnelly at scienceprogram@earthwatch.org.au

We are looking forward hearing from you

Best,

The Project Manta Team
Lydie Couturier
Fabrice Jaine
Dr Kathy Townsend
Prof Mike Bennett
Dr Scarla Weeks
Dr Anthony Richardson

30/3/2010

Manta Movement , call for manta

A few weeks ago, we sent you a call for manta sightings along east Australia as the mantas were not around at North Stradbroke Island for about 2 months in December and January. This is normally the peak aggregation period at this location. Your helpful replies informed us that the mantas seemed to have been in mass numbers around Lady Elliot Island and Heron Island, which is quite unusual for the season. Also few mantas were sighted further south (NSW), when they usually are only sighted in February. 
 
We are really interested in any manta sighting information you can provide even without photos. It gives us good indication about the seasonality of the mantas in different regions.

Lady Elliot Island Field trip
 
Once again, we had an amazing field trip at LEI in early February 2010 with our EarthWatch volunteers. We encountered 25 mantas and identified 18 of them including 6 new individuals.
 
During this trip we also tested our acoustic receivers placed all around the island using a special acoustic tag (called range test tag). We tested whether the receivers can detect the signal from the acoustic tag continuously over a 24hour period and to what rang the receiver can detect the signal (around 500m).
 
We also downloaded the data from the listening stations, which revealed that some of the tagged mantas have been hanging around the island since June with short periods of absence while others totally disappeared after a certain period of time.
 
This is important as it shows that some mantas may be resident to Lady Elliot Island and use the habitat all year around while there may undertake longer migrations. A big thank you to AATAMS for access to equipment and expertise over the last year.
 
We also collected data on the temperature, current direction and current strength around the island relative to tidal cycles. This allowed us to confirm that manta rays tend to start feeding during the outgoing tide at LEI, when the current brings important concentrations of plankton to the island.  Several mantas were sighted feeding during the trip and we had the opportunity to swim with them and observe their feeding behaviour.
 
In addition, plankton tows were conducted all around the island to monitor the plankton community in relation to the different tidal scenarios. Plankton tows were also conducted in the feeding trails of mantas, which shall help us to determine food preferences of these giants.
 
It was a very busy trip, but it didn’t stop us from having a lot of fun. The baby turtles hatching was an amazing sight to behold! 
 
Our next trip to LEI will be from the 20th of June to the 3rd of July. It will be the peak season for manta rays aggregation. On the program:
 
• Lots of photos to ID as many mantas as possible (diving and snorkelling)
• Lots of current, temperature and other parameter measurement around the island
• Lots of plankton collection
• Taking tissue sample from manta rays (biopsy) for genetic and diet determination
• Documentary filming 
• Acoustic receiver deployment around the island at specific sites
• Satellite tag deployment on mantas

If you would like to become a volunteer for Project Manta at Lady Elliot Island and be part of a great adventure, please contact EarthWatch Australia :
 
http://www.earthwatch.org/australia/exped/townsend.html
Contact Andy Donnelly at scienceprogram@earthwatch.org.au

Manta database
 
Our database keeps growing bigger and bigger, we now have 373 mantas identified in only 15 months, this is an amazing great effort and it is mainly thanks to all the photos you have sent us!
 
We recently received lots of photos from different part of the east coast, we really appreciate the effort you put in to help us, and one more time THANK YOU for your help, it is highly valued!
 
 It is important to note that of the 373 animals, 333 were photographed at Lady Elliot Island, and that 20 of these individuals were also sighted at NSI.  It would be great to be able to gather photos from animals observed in other regions along the east coast and to show that soe of these animals may be able to travel great distances from the northern Great Barrier Reef to southern NSW.
 

If you have any manta photos or information you would like to share with us please do at l.couturier@uq.edu.au or call at (+61) 073409058 / 0431545900. You can also join our facebook page: PROJECT MANTA-The manta rays of eastern Australia. This page is regularly updated and allow our contributors to easily communicate with us and each other. You can also upload your own photos to share if you wish to.

The Project Manta Team
 
Lydie Couturier
Fabrice Jaine
Dr Kathy Townsend
Prof Mike Bennett
Dr Scarla Weeks
Dr Anthony Richardson

PROJECT MANTA - JUNE UPDATE

Manta rays database
 
We are delighted to see that the word is being passed on and more and more people are getting involved in this project. We have received many great photos of mantas which have provided us with great information! At the moment the database count stands at 377 mantas, with 161 having been resighted at least once, and still many photos to go through!
 
Movements
 
Based on resighting events, 25 manta rays have now been shown to travel between Lady Elliot Island (LEI) and North Stradbroke Island (NSI); it is very exciting to see this number growing and it tells us so much about what the mantas are up to! From these 25, three mantas have been going back and forth several times between LEI and NSI, suggesting that some individuals undertake annual migrations that include these locations. 

World record
 
We also received photos of 4 mantas seen at Byron Bay (BB) that have been previously seen at LEI, indicating that these animals have been swimming at least 506 km southward. This is the longest movement ever recorded for this species of manta ray!
 
In addition one of these mantas, a mature male called Nathan, has been sighted at NSI 21 days after being photographed at Byron Bay. It is very exciting to see that it is potentially the same population that migrates between LEI, NSI and BB!

LEI field trip
 
It is time for us to head back to LEI for 2 weeks of intense field trip with our Earthwatch volunteers. June is THE best time to get up there and dive with mantas, last year in a two week period we IDed about 150 animals! On the program this year, we have plankton sampling, oceanography, behavioural observations, photo-identification, documentary filming and more!
 
If you are interested in joining us for one of our future field trips at LEI, contact Andy Donnelly at Earthwatch Australia or Kathy Townsend at the University of Queensland. Note that the trips are now becoming so popular that we are solidly booked until the beginning of next year. So if you are thinking about it - book now for 2011!
 
science.program@earthwatch.com.au
http://www.earthwatch.org/australia/exped/townsend.html 

Conference
 
Thanks to all of the photos received we have been able to compile enough information to present some results of this research a the important 'Sharks International' conference in Cairns next week. It is very exciting as we will share all our information with other scientific researchers from around the world.
 
Come and see our photos and share your manta experience on our Facebook page:
Project Manta _The manta rays of eastern Australia 
 
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or photos you would like to share at project.manta@uq.edu.au 

Thank you for your support and we are looking forward to see your next photos!
 
All the best,
 
The Project Manta team

 Lydie Couturier, Fabrice Jaine, Dr Kathy Townsend, Prof Mike Bennett, Dr Anthony Richardson, Dr
Scarla Weeks

Project Manta Update July 2010

Our trip to Lady Elliot Island
Tagging and biopsy sampling:
We equipped 3 more mantas with 2 acoustic and 2 satellite tags. One of them, a male named Cousteau, was tagged with both acoustic and satellite tags. This "unlucky” male will provide us with important information on his movement by making the link between his broad-scale movements (via satellite tracking) and finer scale movements at our study sites (via acoustic tag). In addition, the double tagging will allow us to check the accuracy of both technologies used and to compare of the two types of data obtained.
We also collected biopsy samples from four different animals. A hand spear fitted with a biopsy tip was used to get muscle tissue from the animals. These tissue samples will give information on the genetic structure of the animals as well as diet information where fat molecules will be used to investigate the feeding habits of manta rays.

Acoustic telemetry:
Six listening stations were redeployed around the island providing a great coverage to detect acoustically tagged animals swimming around Lady Elliot (red triangle on photo=listening station positions). This technique gives us precious information on the residency and site fidelity (coming back to the same site several times over a long period of time) of our tagged mantas.

Taking measurements of manta rays:
One of our underwater cameras was equipped with two red lasers, 20 cm apart, projecting two parallel beams of light on the manta body used as a "scale bar”. This technique allows us to estimate the disc length (from the mouth to the pelvic fin) of the animals. Love is in the air Intensive courtship behaviour, where one big female swims closely followed by several males, was seen and filmed at several occasions during our trip. In addition, most big females had mating scars on their left pectoral fins (from the male grabbing the fin during copulation) and always closely followed by mature males. The mantas honoured us with courtship dances where the female starts doing looping motions and the males try to imitate and follow the same movements. During one of the courtship trains, one of the males was even looping in harmony belly to belly with the female for a few seconds. No mating was observed but we are pretty sure it has been happening! These observations are of great importance as it indicates that LEI is probably an important breeding ground for these animals.

Manta craziness
Although our first week was fairly odd, with lots of mantas the first few days then no mantas at all for 2 days in a row, the second week was marked by a true manta festival. We photographed up to 12 different mantas in one dive!! On top of that, we had the great chance to swim amongst a big group of mantas feeding for a whole hour, astonishing memories and emotions!

Result from this trip:
We identified over 100 mantas during this trip, including 38 new individuals. A lot of these animals were also seen last year in June. Four of the resighted mantas - Cloud, Etoile, Damia and Chiron - belong to the group of identified travellers that seasonally move between LEI and Nth Stradbroke Isl (counting 26 mantas to date). One young female called Juliane was also seen at LEI, she was last sighted in March 2010 at Byron Bay. We now know that at least 4 mantas have been travelling between LEI and Byron Bay.

Database
We now have 415 manta rays identified to date!! Amongst those 200 were resighted at least once! And there are still more photos to look through!

Volunteer with EarthWatch for Project Manta
Once again we had an exceptional trip with our EarthWatch volunteers who just made our trip efficient and fun! We still have several trips planned at Lady Elliot Island with EarthWatch, so if you are interested in volunteering don't hesitate to contact us or write to volunteer@earthwatch.org.au. Places for these trips are filling up fast so make sure you book ahead. You can also visit the webpage: http://www.earthwatch.org/australia/exped/townsend_research.html

Facebook page
If you want to follow our adventures, share your manta experience(s) or ask us questions you can also visit on our facebook fan page: PROJECT MANTA_ The manta rays of eastern Australia.

The Project Manta team
Lydie Couturier Fabrice Jaine Kathy Townsend Scarla Weeks Anthony Richardson Mike Bennett

Project Manta Update Nov 2010

Lady Elliot Island EXTREME field trip with Earthwatch

We have just come back from one of our field trip at beautiful Lady Elliot Island, although the weather conditions made this trip pretty extreme, we had a very good time and are delighted to have met seven new Earthwatch volunteers, Adele, Lea-Anne, Aki, Laura, Corrinne, Brad and Sophie. Your help was invaluable during this trip, and we got so much work done. Also a big thank you to Richard, the Earthwatch coordinator who always add this little bit of extra fun and support.

During that trip we identified 11 mantas, including 3 new individuals, collected lots of plankton and oceanographic data. In addition, about 2 months worth of manta photographed taken by Chris, one of the instructor on the island, were sorted and IDed. This represents about 90 different manta rays to identify.

Our two next Project Manta trip to Lady Elliot Island will be in February 2011 and June 2011. If you would like to come and be part of the project during those field trips you can contact us or Earthwatch Australia for more information:

Email: volunteers@earthwatch.org.au
Website: http://www.earthwatch.org/australia/exped/townsend.html

If you want to follow our adventures, share your manta experience(s) or ask us questions you can also visit on our facebook fan page: PROJECT MANTA_ The manta rays of eastern Australia.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions, we will be more than happy to help you out.

We are looking forward to hearing from you and seeing your photos!
All the best,
The Project Manta team

Lydie Couturier
Fabrice Jaine
Kathy Townsend
Scarla Weeks
Anthony Richardson
Mike Bennett

Update 21 April 2011

We had another wonderful field trip at LEI with our Earthwatch volunteers. This trip was not only productive but also very fun. It is always great to meet amazing people that are so keen to learn and help research. This field trip was marked by the fanatic feeding behaviour displayed by the mantas. In fact, only a couple of manta rays were encountered cleaning at the popular dive sites while the others were almost constantly feeding at the surface (feeding on plankton). We did some sampling during those feeding events and the net got completely clogged at some stage as there was so much plankton in the water. No question why the mantas were going crazy feeding! 
The feeding behaviour of the mantas was also very intriguing. So far we had only seen the mantas feeding near the surface at LEI, swimming against the current with their mouth wide open. But this time, as the water was so full of plankton, some mantas started feeding in a looping behaviour, a feeding strategy that is seen in some other parts of the world but first time observed by us at LEI. This is very exciting, and it is all on video!
We will analyse the plankton density and composition, and look at what factors may have influenced such abundance. We will let you know what we find.
We identified 29 mantas during that week, including 3 new individuals: Kenji-san, Hellen and Ana. 
As usual, we had another trip full of surprises and we would like to thank Noriko, Kenji, Elaine, Linda, Hideko and Lucy for their amazing support, efficiency and fun during that field trip.
Our two next Project Manta trip to Lady Elliot Island will be in June and September 2011. If you would like to come and be part of the project during those field trips you can contact us or Earthwatch Australia for more information:
Website: http://www.earthwatch.org/australia/exped/townsend.html
Email: volunteers@earthwatch.org.au
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/PROJECT-MANTA-The-manta-rays-of-eastern-Australia/224905422714#!/pages/PROJECT-MANTA-The-manta-rays-of-eastern-Australia/224905422714