The Story of the Manta and Mobula

Picture this. You're swimming in the Ocean and suddenly you see a very large shadow below you. At another glance you notice that the shadow is roughly 25 feet long and has a body shaped not like a shark but a ray. This is not your typical stingray though. This is a manta ray, one of the most gentle creatures in the sea. Weighing up to 5,000lbs, this creature has never harmed a single human being. Despite being a ray, this ray has no stinging tail or barb. This ray can live for 20 years, but like sharks and other rays, this ray matures later in life. Manta rays can only give birth to up to 16 pups in the course of their entire lives, which means there are not too many of them on the planet. Female manta rays will give birth to just one pup at a time. The pups weigh roughly 25lbs and tends to stay in very shallow waters. This creature, so gentle and majestic, is in need of our help...



Now picture this. You're on a boat when suddenly a small ray launches into the air. You sit and wonder if you really just saw a ray leap out of the water. Then it leaps out of the water once more and does a flip! You watch in amazement as the creature continues to seemingly perform tricks while jumping out of the water. This ray, the Mobula, is the smallest member of the Manta Ray family. Unlike manta rays that grow to massive sizes, the mobula gets a wingspan of roughly 2 feet. This little ray was once common in the Sea of Corte, but much like their larger cousins... These animals need our help...

Both manta and mobula rays are quickly vanishing from the world's Oceans. More and more people are fishing for these animals and killing them for various reasons. The most prominent of these reasons is to harvest the animal's gill rakers. Just 2lbs of gill rakers from a manta ray sells for $500 U.S. in China. The purpose for the harvest is to reduce toxin levels in human blood.which can lower body temperature and improve circulation. Much like the benefits of eating shark fin soup, there is no scientific proof that consuming manta ray gill rakers has any benefits to human health. The rest of the ray is either tossed or cut up and used to make fake scallops, leather boots and wallets, and fake shark cartilage. Economically there is virtually no value to any part of the ray except the gill rakers.

Little is known about the populations of these incredible animals. As a result, there are very few rules and regulations are currently in place to protect them. Currently, the Manta Ray is listed as Vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN's Red List while the Mobula Ray is listed as Data Deficient. These animals need our help and as the demand for gill rakers continues to increase, their populations are sure to decrease. With no scientific backing to the claim of health benefits, there is really no reason to be killing these animals other than pure greed.

The End Is Here

Yesterday I officially became a graduate of Kean University with a degree in History. What I'd like to do from here on in is really up to me. It's looking like I'm going to be getting into law somewhat on a research based job. More on that though if that is the path I choose to take. For this summer though I will remain at the Aquarium and Candy Store. It's kind of strange thinking that my time in both of those places may be coming to an end in a few months. It's really kind of a strange feeling. Not as strange as feeling that I have no classes anymore. It's like opening a door and seeing nothing but the sea in front of you. No land anywhere to be seen. No one telling me which way to go or how to get there. At this point it is all up to me. For this weekend though, I am going to just work and really relish the moment of just graduating and being done with classes. Of course there are a few people that I want to publicly thank.

First of all I have to thank my parents. Without them. I would not have been able to even go to school let alone graduate. The faith that they had in me over the past 5 years is incredible and words really can't describe it at all. There have been some crazy things that have happened over the past 5 years, but through it all, everything worked out and they've helped keep my head high, even in the darkest times. I also have to thank Lauren for pushing me to keep going when I considered stopping my schooling after OCC. Her support has helped me accomplish a lot. All three of these people have had an incredible influence on me and I cannot thank them enough for all they have done for me.

This summer I am going to once again put a lot of time into spreading the word about the world's Oceans. This time however I am going to try and show people what the world is going to turn into as species vanish off the face of the Earth. The species this year that I am going to focus on are sharks, dolphins, whales, seals, and new for this year, bluefin tuna. The title of this campaign will be Operation: Bleeding Seas. The name came from a friend named Stephanie with the message of us bleeding our seas dry. I think it is an incredibly fitting name for what I am trying to get across this summer.

So that is the plan for the immediate future for me. Till next time!