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Manta ray

Manta alfredi

Description:

Manta at the cleaning station.

Habitat:

Tropical waters

51 Comments (1–25)

Israel4
Israel4 2 years ago

what a genius

Desmond.E.S.O
Desmond.E.S.O 8 years ago

I have never seen one like this! The farthest iv'e gotten is petting them in those little "Ray Pools"... ...Although I did catch one when I was fishing on the beach once

Great spotting!!

Cassie456
Cassie456 9 years ago

It's like the ride:)The Manta at seaworld

Nayeli
Nayeli 9 years ago

Wow it looks awesome!! great shot :)

JoshuaGSmith
JoshuaGSmith 9 years ago

simply amazing!

Saumya Wanniarachchi
Saumya Wanniarachchi 10 years ago

Simply amazing ! Wish i could see a Manta Ray one day ! :)

Beautiful!!
But CatalinIenci, one photograph a year is not enough... share some more please. : )

MUSE
MUSE 10 years ago

wow love it ..

Scott Frazier
Scott Frazier 10 years ago

Hi CatalinIenci. Your spotting is featured in the new PN blog post! Cheers
http://projectnoah.tumblr.com/post/58511...

Bhagya Herath
Bhagya Herath 10 years ago

wow amazing

outsidegirl0
outsidegirl0 10 years ago

what an awesome pic!

Mona Pirih
Mona Pirih 10 years ago

Awesome !!!

inaralisa
inaralisa 11 years ago

Super, thanks!

Azura Firdaus W
Azura Firdaus W 11 years ago

wow awesome

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

Catalin, I've created a new mission for Symbiotic relationships & would appreciate it if you could add this spotting!
http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/7987...

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 12 years ago

Simply beautiful

Feche
Feche 12 years ago

wow!

CJulen
CJulen 12 years ago

Wow - what a gorgeous shot!!

LauraMaria
LauraMaria 12 years ago

Oh wow, that's cool that Andrea Marshall ID'd this! Yeah, the markings were confusing, and I didn't realise the margin wasn't a defining feature. Awesome, thanks for sharing that and I'm glad it's been professionally ID'd!

ChristopherBartlett
ChristopherBartlett 12 years ago

PS - Laura, my thoughts were exactly the same as yours, that's why i sent Andrea the pic. The grey margin is not a defining feature of M.b, by the way, just often observed.

ChristopherBartlett
ChristopherBartlett 12 years ago

Hi Laura, I shall cut and paste from an e-mail from Dr Andrea Marshall:
"It is an alfredi. They can also have darkish colours around the face but if you looked on the inside of their month it would be white. This obviously does not include the black alfredi but at least for the normal colour ones it would be. Not sure why some have darker faces than others perhaps its mom was a melanistic manta! At least you know for sure now!!!"

ChristopherBartlett
ChristopherBartlett 12 years ago

It's Reef manta, or Manta alfredi, as described in 2009 by Dr Andrea Marshall Director and Lead Scientist - Manta Rays at the Marine Megafauna Foundation, Manta Ray & Whale Shark Research Centre
Tofo Beach, Inhambane, Mozambique.

LauraMaria
LauraMaria 12 years ago

Christopher, I think it is hard to tell from this photo if it's M. birostris or M. alfredi because it seems to have defining features of both!? While it has the spots between the gill slits that is characteristic of M. alfredi, it also has the grey margin on the edge of the wings and the dark mouth area that ID M. birostris... really quite neat! I wonder if it's some kind of hybrid, that would be interesting!

ChristopherBartlett
ChristopherBartlett 12 years ago

Catalinlenci, this manta has some interesting markings for a birostris, notable the black marks between its gill slits. Where off West Papua was this taken, and do you have any other images of a different angle of the same manta (i.e from overhead or front on)? If so, i'd be interested in seeing them and passing them on to some friends of mine who are manta research scientitsts.

CatalinIenci
Spotted by
CatalinIenci

West Papua, Indonesia

Spotted on Mar 8, 2011
Submitted on Apr 2, 2011

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