MantaWatch spent the past week with our friends from Project Manta, surveying the manta populations around Lady Elliot Island in Australia.

Project Manta’s scientists are breaking new ground with their research on the manta rays of eastern Australia. Their recent achievements include identifying the environmental conditions that manta rays prefer, and tracking migrations across vast distances of the Queensland coast.

MantaWatch & Project Manta at Lady Elliot Island

Manta rays are not currently protected in Australian state or federal waters. Project Manta is conducting a multidisciplinary study of manta rays in eastern Australia to address critical knowledge gaps about the species. However, important questions remain unanswered, including “how large is Australia’s manta ray population?”, “is there mixing between the manta populations of eastern and Western Australia?”, and “do mantas migrate between Australia’s marine protected areas?”.

And of course, do mantas migrate across the international boundary between Australia and Indonesia?

We had an opportunity to compare our manta database with Project Manta’s. So far, no individuals have been recorded in both Indonesia and eastern Australia. But with a series of shallow, atoll-like reefs connecting Indonesia and Western Australia, perhaps we should examine Australia’s west coast more carefully.

Project Manta is a multidisciplinary research program based at The University of Queensland, Brisbane. It was founded in 2007 to investigate the population biology and ecology of manta rays in eastern Australia.

Lady Elliot Island is one of six island resorts on the Great Barrier Reef. It is teeming with life, including sea turtles that hatch on its beaches, dolphins, many kinds of coral and fish, and a variety of breeding birds. Humpback whales pass nearby during the migration season, and the island is an important aggregation sites where mantas can be seen all year round.