像你们中的许多人一样,我梦想着与蝠ta游泳。我环游世界,记录了数百次潜水,但我从未见过一个麦塔。我遇到了不同的物种Mobula射线有时被称为mantas,但我一直在寻找礁曼塔(蝠taalfredi).
2014年,在非洲居住和工作时,我的Manta Luck即将改变。我从来没有在我最疯狂的梦中,我认为我的第一次麦塔雷(Manta Ray)的遇到会与曼塔斯(Mantas)女王安德里亚·马歇尔(Andrea Marshall)博士并肩作战。
I was on my second trip to Tofo, a Mozambican diving mecca known for manta ray and whale shark sightings. Tofo beach is 250km (150 miles) south of Bazaruto Island where I was living, and Tofo made for the perfect escape from island life.
在tofo中潜水的水肺潜水真是太棒了,几天后,我看到了巨大的礁鱼学校,发现了一个土豆果cleaning station, and snorkeled withhammerhead sharks,although I never saw a single manta or whale shark! Call me unlucky, as the one day I decided to sit out the dive, our group saw a school of mantas and several whale sharks feeding at the surface…
Discouraged by my lack of Tofo mantas, I wandered over to the海洋Megafauna基金会headquarters and found Andrea. The Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF) was originally formed in 2003 to research, protect and conserve the large populations of marine megafauna found along the Mozambican coastline, and has since expanded their efforts to protect marine megafauna worldwide.
We chatted for a while about my manta misfortunes and Andrea gave me the details of a smaller population she found in the Bazaruto Archipelago, not far from where I lived. The Foundation has a satellite research station on Bazaruto Island, where they work with the Bazaruto National Park surveying the coast by air.
巴萨鲁托
The Bazaruto National Park covers an area of 1400 square kilometers or (550 sq mi) and includes four of the five islands and surrounding waters. The Bazaruto Park is the oldest marine park in Mozambique and was created to protect the vulnerable population of dugongs which make the shallow seagrass meadows their home.
The Bazaruto Archipelago is rich in marine megafauna and common sightings include humpback whales (in season), sea turtles, dolphins, sharks and mobula rays, while reef mantas and whale sharks are more uncommon. Dugong sightings are also rare, although I did spot a few dugongs before encountering a manta.
To survey the Park MMFPilot Janneman Conradie乘坐微型飞机乘坐天空。这些调查的目的是count individual animals and searches for and illegal fishing or abandoned nets in the Park. This data is then used to gain a better understand of current population sizes and develop conservation strategies for the Park.
It was their last day of surveying in Bazaruto and Andrea agreed to join me for an adventure. Janneman飞到上方,散发出动物目击者的GPS坐标,不久之后他找到了一群礁石!我和安德里亚(Andrea)编程了坐标并起飞。我们发现十个少年礁在地面喂食,安德里亚告诉我小组在几天前最多达到了80个人。
We swam with the mantas, or tried to keep up with the swift swimmers by having our skipper drop us ahead of their trajectory. Some of the animals were more curious than others and Andrea was able to get these beautiful photos of a little manta.
Dr. Andrea Marshall is a world renowned manta ray expert who has been instrumental in the conservation of this iconic species. From her extensive research in Tofo, she was able to describe a new giant manta species in 2008 and continues to fight for their conservation on a global scale. Finding my first manta with Andrea was truly an unforgettable experience.
A few months later I returned to Tofo, and at the very end of my last dive, a manta graced our presence. My manta curse had been broken thanks to the Queen of Mantas.
要了解有关海洋Megafauna基金会的更多信息,或者采用蝠ta,请访问MMF网站marinemegafauna.org