Reef manta ray

Description:

The reef manta ray (Manta alfredi) is species of ray in the family Mobulidae, the largest rays in the world. Among generally recognized species, it is the second largest species of ray, only surpassed by the giant oceanic manta ray. This is a "mating train", in which a female will swim for days with a group of males behind her. It is believed that she "dances" (rolls, turns, etc. [some of which we saw]) and that she chooses the male that best mimics her dance to mate with. The female is the first manta in the video clip, she is larger than the males following behind her. See in the notes for information about the male in the first photo. Poor thing recently lost his tail and had a bite taken from his left wing.

Habitat:

The reef manta ray is found widely in the tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific, but there are a few records from the tropical East Atlantic. Compared to the giant oceanic manta ray, the reef manta ray tends to be found in shallower, more coastal habitats. This group was located in the outer reef of Lady Elliot Island.

Notes:

The water was totally awash with Sea Sawdust (Trichodesmium) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichodesmi... , which had recently bloomed and died. Hence the really poor picture quality. which was so bad in the stills that I had to make the first one black and white. Project Manta https://sites.google.com/site/projectman... is monitoring this species, so I sent them the above photo, and got the following back: "I had a look through our database and the picture you sent across is of a male named Trigo. We first saw him at Lady Elliot in 2008 and he was last sighted in November 2011. Thanks again for sharing the pic, we can add this latest sighting to the database."