This past weekend I had the honour of meeting marine biologist Andrea Marshall following her talk at the London international Dive Show (LIDS). I already knew she was pretty awesome but in all seriousness she is one of the most inspiring young ladies I have ever met.
Since 2003 Andrea has been based in Mozambique researching the manta ray population for her PhD thesis (the first of its kind) – Biology and population ecology of manta birostris in Southern Mozambique. During the last seven years on Tofo Beach her field research has led to a number of discoveries through the use of acoustic tagging, non-intrusive underwater photography and genetic sample collecting including feeding techniques, mating rituals and reproduction, dive depths and migration patterns. Yet most interestingly the work of the Manta Ray and Whale Shark Research Centre uncovered not only visual but also behavioral differences between Tofo’s mantas culminating in the identification of a second (and possibly third) species separating the manta birostris (giant migratory mantas) from the smaller newly-named manta alfredi (or reef manta) as presented at the American Elasmobranch Society’s annual conference in Montreal, Canada during July 2008.
Andrea’s hour-long discussion to a packed out seminar room at London’s ExCEL centre introduced mantas through some truly stunning visuals and gave us the opportunity to learn more about manta population, ecology and conservation not just in Mozambique but across the globe. I was surprised to learn just how small their numbers are and how irresponsible fishing has decimated numbers in some areas making the industry for gill rakers (used in Chinese medicine) increasingly unviable. Observations of manta reproduction indicate that the long 12-month gestation period of female mantas impacts energy stores so strongly that a single pup is usually only produced every two to three years. Describing a WWF funded project Andrea presented figures of a three year fishing cycle resulting in the economic collapse of the fishery and a manta population still struggling to make a come back.
Back in November 2009 the BBC broadcast a documentary about Andrea’s work called Andrea: Queen of the Mantas. It contained some of the most incredible footage collected by her research centre but as it’s no longer available via the iPlayer you’ll only be able to catch a few clips. Take my word for it though that it was amazing. I’ve also embedded a Save our Seas‘ video clip of Andrea talking about her research below. Save our Seas are one of the main sponsors for the Mozambique research and always appreciate your support to help continue their conservation, awareness, research and education projects. They were also at LIDS where I picked up one of the shirts as modeled by Andrea above.
For more on Andrea and mantas take a look at some of these:
- The New Scientist;
- Save our Seas;
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species;
- Manta Ray Research;
- Scientific output;
- The secret world of the giant manta ray.
UPDATE – Andrea Marshall vs The World.
