Distribution, site affinity and regional movements of the manta ray, Manta alfredi (Krefft, 1868), along the east coast of Australia

By L. Couturier, Fabrice R. A. Jaine, K. Townsend, Scarla J. Weeks, Anthony J. Richardson, M. Bennett. 2011

106 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Despite the increasing tourism interest worldwide for the manta ray, Manta alfredi, very little is known about its biology and ecology. Knowledge of its distribution and movement patterns is important for conservation purposes. Here we describe the distribution, site visitation and movements of M. alfredi along the east coast of Australia. Photographic identification techniques were used to identify individual manta rays at three study sites: Lady Elliot Island, North Stradbroke Island and Byron Bay. Of 388 M. alfredi individuals identified at Lady Elliot Island, 187 (48%) were subsequently re-identified at least once at the same site. In total, 31 individuals were identified at both Lady Elliot Island and North Stradbroke Island (,380km to the south) and 4 at both Lady Elliot Island and Byron Bay (,500km to the south). Manta alfredi was present all year around at Lady Elliot Island, although in higher numbers in winter, and was mainly observed at North Stradbroke Island and Byron Bay from mid-spring to mid-autumn. This is the first report of seasonal movements and site affinity forM. alfredi ineastern Australian waters and emphasises the value of photographic identification for monitoring the occurrence of individuals.

Subfields: Ecology, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6a0a700c56df057d0bf479d9d356aab0426ac8aa

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In Nature and Landscape Conservation

Citations in the corpus

Movements of the reef manta ray (Manta alfredi) in the Red Sea using satellite and acoustic telemetry (2015, result): “Our results reinforce earlier work based on acoustic tagging and photo-identification studies on both reef and giant mantas (Manta birostris) in other locations (Indonesia, Dewar et al. 2008; Hawaii, Deakos et al. 2011; eastern Australia, Couturier et al. 2011; Mozambique, Marshall et al. 2011).”
The importance of research and public opinion to conservation management of sharks and rays: a synthesis (2011, unknown): “Couturier et al. (2011) have used photo-identification to study the movements ofmanta rays (Manta alfredi) along theAustralian eastern coast, providing the first understanding of the movements of this iconic species in this region.”
Research Priorities to Support Effective Manta and Devil Ray Conservation (2018, background): “Large Collaborative Efforts Ongoing efforts to monitor mobulid movements through photoID (Kumli and Rubin, 2010; Couturier et al., 2011; Germanov and Marshall, 2014; Stevens, 2016), telemetry (Croll et al.”