12/7/2022 0 Comments Manta ray urban explorerThousands are killed every year just for their gill rakes. The demand for gill rakes, which are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, is incredibly high. They are fished for their meat, skin, and gill rakes. Overfishing is a major problem for mantas. Sadly, that doesn’t mean these graceful creatures are out of danger. Nowadays fishermen know that manta rays are harmless creatures that neither pose a threat, nor are competition to their livelihood. While feeding they open their mouths wide and flatten their cephalic fins to help channel the plankton into their mouth. They swim slowly around a school of plankton to bunch it together and then dive quickly through the ball to feed. Some commonly eaten prey includes zooplankton, krill, shrimp, and crab larvae. Manta rays are filter feeders, and only feed on very small organisms. These congregation areas include the Similan Islands in Thailand, New Zealand’s North Island, Isla de Plata in Ecuador, Laje de Santos Marine Park in Brazil, and Isla Holbox in Mexico. Giant mantas are more widespread, but have seasonal “hotspots” where they are more common. In the eastern Pacific Ocean reef mantas can be found from Japan to New South Wales, and from Hawaii to French Polynesia. In general, they range no farther north than North Carolina in the United States, and no farther south than New Zealand. These two species can be found in all major oceans in tropical and subtropical climates. The giant oceanic manta ray is more common in areas closer to coastlines, while the reef manta ray is found mostly in open ocean. This means that they don’t live in close proximity to shore (coastal), or to the ocean bottom (demersal). The two species have slightly different habitat preferences, but both are pelagic. These rays are native to oceans in tropical and subtropical climates, and avoid ocean temperatures below 68º F. MANTA RAY URBAN EXPLORER FULLThey have also been known to perform full somersaults in the air! Other times they twist and reenter the water tail first. Sometimes they jump in a perfect arc, entering the water face first.
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