Why are Florida's 'urban manta rays' visiting some particularly dangerous spots?

Understanding why marine animals are using some places and not others is crucial to minimizing our impact on them. Recently, Nortek’s new Eco acoustic doppler current profiler has been helping one marine biologist, with no previous experience in using oceanographic instruments, characterize current flows in one of the manta ray‘s more unusual shallow-water coastal habitats with simplicity and ease.

Powerful yet graceful, manta rays top almost everyone’s list of must-see marine animals. While people flock to places like Indonesia or the Maldives to watch these gentle giants, one location has gone relatively unnoticed – South Florida. “I lived in Florida working as a sea turtle biologist, and a lot of data collection involved being on the beach all day,” recounts Jessica Pate, a marine biologist with the Marine Megafauna Foundation. “Sometimes I would notice these big, black shapes swimming right next to shore in less than a meter of water.” Surprised to see manta rays, Pate searched for more information but found very little. “I know hundreds of people researching sea turtles, and I couldn’t believe that no one was studying manta rays [in South Florida],” she says.

Pate has been working hard to rectify the lack of information on South Florida’s manta rays, and recently published a major study that revealed some key insights about the mantas that frequent South Florida – they are primarily juveniles. With Florida’s coast so highly developed, it is a surprising location for a nursery area. What’s more, these particular “urban manta rays” are also singling out some particularly hazardous locations…

Read the rest of the story at Nortek.