Today, we were home all day learning basic knowledge about manta rays, manta conservation, and manta surveys. We started the day at 8 a.m. in the morning with presentation of manta rays by Niomi. We learned the taxonomy, appearance, life cycle and their behaviour. The unique thing about Mantas are that they are the only elasmobranch who have a black colourmorph.

The second topic that we learned is about manta conservation which is presented by Tami. We learned that mantas are important because they have high value in various aspects. There is a fun fact about manta, in some locations they prefer to live in coastal areas next to native forest rather than coconut forest. Do you know why? It’s because of the bird poo. The bird poo or “guano” is washed into the ocean, where it provides a lot of nutrition for phytoplankton, which feeds the zooplankton, which is the manta’s food.

Mantas are at risk because of numerous threats such as habitat loss, trash pollution, fishing (bycatch or intended), and also natural predation. Manta conservation can be done by managing the manta fisheries and also by gaining more knowledge about them. The management of manta fisheries can help mantas to be sustainable so that they won’t extinct.

We also learned about how to do manta surveys from Luci. The things that we need to look when we are taking data such as, ventral marking, dorsal marking, behaviour, scars, sex, and pregnancy bulge. There are seven code of conduct when we meet manta. They are: listen, watch, behave, position, exhale, protect and photograph. We must do that to have a comfortable experience for us and the mantas.

The rest of the day Andy taught us how to make a report, using the MantaWatch website and the manual form. We also practised and reviewed our self-introduction for tomorrow’s presentation at Komodo National Park Authority.

Discussing our self-introductions