Photo by Michael Scholl
POPUL ATION STRUCTURE, RESIDENCY AND BEHAVIOUR OF REEF MANTAS AUTHOR: DR RYAN DALY PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: SOSF-DRC FIELD PERSONNEL: SOSF-DRC STAFF Since 2009, the DRC has been monitoring the population of reef mantas Manta alfredi that frequents D’Arros Island and St Joseph Atoll to improve the understanding of this iconic and vulnerable species. This programme has relied primarily on photo identification to catalogue individual mantas over time in order to investigate the population’s structure, size, residency patterns and site fidelity. SOSF-DRC staff conduct regular dives and surveys to record the presence and location of mantas and take photographs to identify individual manta rays. This ongoing research was complemented in 2016 by the start of a broader manta ray project led by PhD candidate Lauren Peel. In 2016, 197 mantas were recorded at D’Arros and St Joseph, bringing the total number on record to 764. A total of 159 individual mantas have been identified within the Seychelles population, of which 56% have been re-sighted, particularly at D’Arros Island. Additionally, many manta rays recorded at D’Arros Island have been re-sighted multiple times over the past eight years, highlighting the importance of D’Arros as a critical habitat for this species.
Photo by Olivier Born
The D’Arros Research Centre boat conducting a manta sur vey around D’Arros Island.
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