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Sanctuary Identified as Manta Nursery


From the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Newsletter…
Where do young manta rays spend their time? Finally, researchers have an answer: Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
In a paper published in Marine Biology, Dr. Nancy  Foster Scholar Joshua Stewart and sanctuary researchers Marissa Nuttall, Emma Hickerson, and Dr. Michelle Johnston suggest that Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary and the area surrounding it may represent the first documented nursery habitat for oceanic manta rays (Manta birostris) and a potential new species of manta (Manta cf. birostris).
In light of the fact that oceanic manta rays were recently listed as threatened under the Endanger Species Act, this is quite significant. The protections provided within the sanctuary keep juvenile mantas relatively safe from threats affecting them in other parts of the world.
We always knew this place was special. This new finding just makes it more so!

Website Highlight

Last month, Joshua Stewart gave a webinar about Manta Rays of the Flower Garden Banks. Click here to listen to an archived recording of that webinar (scroll until the presentation begins at around the 10 minute mark).
 

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Investigation of East Flower Garden Bank coral die-off continues amid new coral bleaching event

Scientists documenting the bleaching event underway in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Photo: G.P. Schmahl/NOAA.
Scientists documenting the bleaching event underway in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Photo: G.P. Schmahl/NOAA.
From the NOAA Marine Sanctuaries website…
Scientists continue to explore a broad spectrum of possible causes for July’s mass mortality event at East Flower Garden Bank within Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, including environmental conditions and human activities. Meanwhile, their efforts are now complicated by a new but unrelated coral bleaching event, which can happen this time of year when corals are stressed by warmer water temperatures.
A preliminary review of vessel traffic data revealed a lack of vessels in the vicinity just before the mortality event. This effectively rules out the possibility of an acute discharge of pollutants as the cause of the die-off. Earlier analyses indicated that no hydrocarbons were present in the area of the mortality, which further reduces the likelihood that the event was due to some sort of petroleum-based contamination.
Ongoing response efforts are now focused on additional analysis of oceanographic dynamics (see animation below) and water quality. NOAA research divers conducting additional response surveys earlier this month observed dead sponges in other locations around East Flower Garden Bank and on a nearby production platform just outside the boundary of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. The die-off and whatever caused it, therefore, may have been more widespread than initially thought. [READ MORE]