Befriending a Maldives manta. Is Sri Lanka culpable in diminished ray populations?
By Mark Hager
Tuesday July 27, 2021
8:34 am
I met a manta in Maldives. We found ourselves in a small boat, looking for mantas with aid of a drone, snorkels at the ready. An hour earlier, we had encountered a small cluster but, having trouble with my mask, I missed most of the action. These were ‘reef mantas,’ not gargantuan ‘ocean mantas.’ Now the drone picked up a lone ray and began hovering over it, maybe 150 meters off the boat.
My eight year old Nate and I, along with his school chum and his chum’s daddy, launched into the waves, kicking furiously. A newly-wed couple jumped in behind. With the other daddy babysitting the strong-swimming schoolboys, I got slightly ahead.