A new development from Blue Safari Seychelles and its partners, including The Manta Trust and Save Our Seas Foundation, is set to lead the way in manta ray conservation.
Prior to 2022, the national Seychelles Manta Ray Project relied on photo-identification, however the new development, the Manta Acoustic Tagging Project, uses acoustic tagging and genetic samples to protect the species.
After three years of planning and collaboration and two and a half years of fundraising, the project is coming to life, with 20 mantas being tagged and genetic samples taken from 25.
Travel Daily News reports the project aims to:
- Investigate the spatial ecology of the reef manta rays around the Alphonse group of atolls (ring shaped coral reef).
- Study how mantas are inhabiting atolls.
- Study factors influencing movement patterns and residency times around atolls at different stages of life.
- Track mantas tagged on Alphonse.
- Contribute genetic samples to an Indian Ocean-wide genetic study.
The three-year project, funded by guest donations, is expected to be highly valuable in the protection of manta ray populations. Manta rays face significant threats and are extremely slow to reproduce and, as a result, populations have decreased by over 30% in the last 25 years.
