Manta Rays are the stealth bombardiers of the sea. Appearing out of the blue, unhurried and agile, they glide right over a diver’s head, make a smooth turn and often return to circle and dance in your stream of bubbles. As you watch them feed, they appear to be doing gymnastics; circling and turning as they filter the seawater through their gills. These giant plankton eaters can grow up to an impressive 6 metres wide and can be spotted throughout the Maldives at cleaning and feeding stations.

diveOceanus ecOcare is now working alongside the Maldives Manta Ray Project to help identify each manta in the Maldives. This can be done using the marking patterns on the manta ray’s belly. Each manta ray has a unique set of markings which function just like a fingerprint. This information is then used to better understand daily and seasonal movements, population size and structure, breeding patterns and cleaning behaviour