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. 2020 Mar 18;15(3):e0228815.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228815. eCollection 2020.

Diving behavior of the reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) in New Caledonia: More frequent and deeper night-time diving to 672 meters

Hugo Lassauce  1   2   3 , Olivier Chateau  4 , Mark V Erdmann  5 , Laurent Wantiez  1
Affiliations

Diving behavior of the reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) in New Caledonia: More frequent and deeper night-time diving to 672 meters

Hugo Lassauce et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The interest in reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) from the scientific community is growing in reaction to the major decline of populations around the world. Studies have highlighted the need to further investigate the spatial ecology of this species to inform conservation and management initiatives. Here we briefly report the results from nine SPLASH10-F-321A pop-off satellite archival tags (PSAT-tags) deployed in New Caledonia that recorded the world's deepest known dives for reef manta rays. All tagged individuals performed dives exceeding 300 m in depth, with a maximum depth recorded of 672 ± 4 m. Diel comparisons revealed that most of the deepest dives occurred during night-time. We hypothesize this deep-diving behaviour is employed to access important food resources at these depths during the night and may also indicate that zooplankton abundance in the surface waters surrounding New Caledonian coral reefs is insufficient to sustain these megafauna. These results add new information on the habitat use of this species in a region where manta behaviour has not previously been studied, and increase the known depth range of M. alfredi by more than 200 m.

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Conflict of interest statement

OceanMax supplied the Propspeed antifouling coating for our tags. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The authors have declared that no other competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Tagging locations of Mobula alfredi.
Arrows indicate tagging locations in Boulari channel (BC) and Dumbea channel (DC) in Noumea (n = 7), Touho (n = 3) and Ouvea (n = 1). Source: OpenStreetMap contributors.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Comparison between day (white) and night (black) of the cumulative quantity of dives for all tagged reef manta rays at different depth ranges (m).
n = total number of individuals recorded in each depth range. * indicates a significant difference (Fisher exact test, P < 0.05) between number of day and night dives in a given depth range.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Relation between the minimum temperature (°C) at corresponding depth (m) measurements (n = 3820) during the deployment of all tags (n = 9).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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