Where in the World Can You Find Manta Rays in Captivity? You can have manta ray encounters in Mexico, Hawaii, even Thailand, there are plenty of places for swimming with manta rays. ![]() Manta rays can be found all through Indonesia including Komodo island and Nusa Penida, where we went, which is not far from the coast of Bali. You can also get them on the western coast and down in NSW around Coffs Harbour. you can find manta rays to dive and snorkel with in places such as Australia where they can be found around Lady Elliot Island and around the Great Barrier Reef. Manta rays can be found all over the world but they prefer temperate waters. My mum and dad have scuba dived all over the world and have never seen manta rays before now. Where in the World Can You Swim with Manta Rays? These are causing harm to manta populations as well as contributing to the toxicity of the gill plates when ingested by Chinese people. Micro-plastics are incredibly small pieces of plastic that are the result of plastic break-down in our oceans. Whenever our boat crew spotted any junk or trash they fished it out of the water, which was great to see. We’re not sure if that white mark in the bottom left of the picture is plastic trash or not, but when we were in the water we did see plastics although nowhere near as much as the media led us to believe. Poorly managed manta ray tourism can also be detrimental to the manta populations. The mantas can also be caught as bycatch and ghost fishing (when old lines and nets get them caught). Ironically, consumption of manta ray gill plates has risen due in part to a decrease in the availability of shark fins. ![]() The manta rays are being fished because of the trade in gill plates (opens in new tab-warning graphic content) which are used in soup. Other reasons include over-fishing for, unbelievably, Chinese medicine. Manta rays are vulnerable and their population is decreasing due to a multitude of reasons including the fact they reproduce infrequently ( every 2 to 5 years) You could never say with 100% certainty that it is safe to swim with manta rays. However, the water was very deep and deep water and strong currents plus wave action can cause harm in weak swimmers. We felt very safe swimming and snorkelling with mantas, even with children. However, they are huge creatures and could potentially harm you, particularly if they are jumping out of the water. ![]() They are filter feeders so cannot really bite you either. Manta rays are fairly safe to swim with as they lack the stingers found in their cousins, the stingrays. They are harmless gentle giants and swimming with them is considered pretty safe. No, unlike their close relatives, stingrays, who sadly saw off Steve Irwin not far from where we live in Port Douglas Australia, manta rays do not sting, nor do they have a stinger of any sort. They have a skeleton made of cartilage, as all sharks and rays do, and they give birth to live young. These big fish can have a wingspan of about 22 feet and the largest ones can weigh 3000 pounds or 1360 Kilograms and eats people – I mean plankton. The giant manta ray is the larger of the two. It is thought that there is another type of manta called the Atlantic manta ray but that may just be another name for the giant manta. They are known as mobulid rays along with the devil ray. There are 2 types of manta ray, the giant manta ray and the reef manta ray. The word manta comes from the Spanish word for mantle.
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