manta rays

Besides just background information, I would like to find out how big they can get, and how long they can live. Also, I want to know how they produce their offspring, and how big their offspring are at birth. As well, I would like to find out what they eat, and who their predators are. Answers to these questions will give me a better understanding of manta rays, and hopefully make my experience will them more fulfilling.

Since today is my first day searching for my I-search report on

Manta Ray. 13. Manta Ray- Manta birostris. 11/8/01: www.cayman.org/fauna/manta.htm

Despite their size and appearance they eat relatively small food. Some of the things that they feed on are plankton, small fish, and crustaceans. Since they are bottom dwellers their mouth and gills are located on the underside of the body (tripod.com). “The Manta ray utilizes its gills when it feeds by sucking water through its gills, allowing plankton to remain in its mouth, while water is pumped out. Then, via gill arches, the plankton is redirected to the ray’s stomach for digestion” (Reef Brief). The cephalic fins, or “horns” which people called them, are fins that extend forward from the eyes, which helps the manta guide large amounts of plankton into its mouth (cayman.org).

Manta comes from the Spanish word-meaning blanket, which describes their unique body shape (Reef Briefs). Their skeletal structure is very similar to that of a shark, which is made out of cartilage (McEachran). Because of this many people characterize them as “Flattened out sharks” (Reef Briefs). Even though, they are closely related to the shark, they are very different (Scott). The one main difference between the two is the fact that the manta ray is known to be one of the gentlest creatures in the sea. What’s ironic about this is that fisherman use to call them the “devil fish” (tripod.com), and thought that they were capable of destroying their boats. This isn’t hard to believe because of their enormous size, and their fins on the side of their head that look like horns (Reef Briefs).

One of the most famous places to see manta rays up close is at Yap Island, which is in the southwest corner of Micronesia, near Guam. This island was one of the first places that people were able to get close enough to photograph the manta rays. As soon as divers heard of this they went there to see the mantas for themselves. Because of this many of the dive masters there were afraid that the influx of divers would scare the mantas away, but the exact opposite happened. The manta rays were curious of the divers and came closer to them than before. Over the years the island has reported an increase on the number of manta rays seen on daily dive trips. A scientist named Bill Acker believes that mantas are attracted to Yap Island because it has shallow inner land mangroves,

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