The globally endangered oceanic manta ray Mobula birostris is believed to spend significantly more time in the open ocean than in coastal areas. Nonetheless, the Bird's Head Seascape (BHS) in eastern Indonesia hosts a large population of this species (over 850 individuals), frequently sighted at coral reef cleaning stations and forming a vital asset for marine tourism in the region. Despite this, detailed understanding of the movements and habitat use of this wide-ranging species within shallow (<30 m) coral reef ecosystems remains limited. Addressing this knowledge gap is urgently required for the sustainable management of oceanic manta ray-focused tourism in the region. Here, we report the results of an initial passive acoustic telemetry study investigating the use of coral reef cleaning stations by oceanic manta rays.
A comprehensive understanding of the movements and habitat use of marine megafauna is critical to the success of efforts to conserve and manage them. The oceanic manta ray Mobula birostris (Walbaum, 1792), which was recently uplisted to Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, is distributed circumglobally in tropical to temperate waters. This wide-ranging species is considered highly migratory and is known to undertake long-distance movements of up to 1,500 km in the eastern tropical Pacific and southwestern Pacific. Despite this, a multidisciplinary study using satellite telemetry, genetic analysis, and stable isotopes suggested that at three sites in the Indo-Pacific (Sri Lanka, Mexico, and Raja Ampat in Indonesia), this species exhibits restricted movements and fine-scale population structure