Day 24 : Bumping into Old Friends

by | Oct 11, 2013 | Intern's Diary | 0 comments

Day 24 : Bumping into Old Friends
Rany Ramadhani

Ranny the Ray

Today was our final survey day, and the entire team joined Dive Komodo’s guests and crew to visit two of the main manta aggregation sites in West Flores: Mawan and Manta Point.

We recognised many individuals that we had recorded earlier in the past month. Perhaps these are resident mantas that regularly return to the same cleaning or feeding locations. Or perhaps they have returned to bid our team farewell (for now).

melanistic manta

IDing a melanistic manta

Today was a bittersweet day for me, as we are nearing the end of Manta Month. Over a very short period this year’s interns have become a proficient team of scientific divers, and I will truly miss diving with them. I am extremely proud of them and all of their accomplishment, and I look forward to seeing where their future careers take them.

Over the past month they have been involved in many aspects of conservation management, from scientific diving to fisheries monitoring to meeting with policy makers to awareness and education. Through them I also have learned a lot, and experienced first hand the challenges and triumphs of manta ray conservation efforts here in West Manggarai and Komodo.

Tomorrow is our final day, and we will all be busy analysing data and preparing for our final presentation and the Manta Month Awards, to be held at The Lounge Bar and Restaurant, Labuan Bajo at 8pm.

Rany Ramadhani

Ranny the Ray

Elitza Germanov

Elitza Germanov

From Elitza’s first glimpse beneath the sea’s surface, on a family trip to Cuba, her curiosity for the underwater world was piqued. After learning to dive in 2008, the sea always seemed to beckon. In 2009, she took what should have been a “short” sabbatical from here career as a cancer researcher, in order to pursue her PADI Divemaster certification and hasn’t looked back since! In 2011, Elitza was fortunate to visit Komodo National Park and witness a rare manta ray congregation of over 50 individuals and became entranced by these majestic animals. Since then she relocated to work as a SCUBA diving instructor in Komodo and loves to share manta encounters with others. Through her work, she has found a new calling in raising awareness on the plight of manta rays and collecting as much information on manta rays in the hopes of changing current policies and having these magnificent species protected once and for all.