{"id":217583,"date":"2025-10-16T15:25:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/217583\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:25:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:25:31","slug":"when-researchers-tracked-24-giant-manta-rays-into-the-deep-they-discovered-an-amazing-new-behaviour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/217583\/","title":{"rendered":"When researchers tracked 24 giant manta rays into the deep, they discovered an amazing new behaviour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A team of international researchers has discovered that oceanic\u00a0manta rays\u00a0\u2013 the largest species of ray on the planet \u2013 may dive over 1,200 metres deep to find their way around the ocean, according to a new study published in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/journals\/marine-science\/articles\/10.3389\/fmars.2025.1630451\/full\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Frontiers in Marine Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The scientists tagged 24 giant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/fish\/facts-about-manta-rays\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mantas<\/a> in Raja Ampat (Indonesia), Tumbes (Peru), and close to Whangaroa (New Zealand) then reviewed the data that had been recorded.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They noticed that the rays were more likely to dive extremely deep off the coast of New Zealand: of the 2,705 tag-days of data recorded, mantas dived over 500 metres deep on 79 days; 71 of these dives were in the waters around New Zealand.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFar offshore, oceanic manta rays are capable of diving to depths greater than 1,200 metres, far deeper than previously thought,\u201d says the study\u2019s author Dr Calvin Beale from Murdoch University\u00a0and leader of the Manta Trust&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mantatrust.org\/ramp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Raja Ampat Manta Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Oceanic-manta-and-diver-Fuvahmulah-Maldives-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"Oceanic manta ray and diver\" class=\"wp-image-142692\"\/>Oceanic manta rays are the world&#8217;s largest rays. Credit: Simon Hilbourne | Manta Trust<\/p>\n<p>The rays\u2019 diving behaviour also offered a clue as to why they might be plummeting to the ocean floor. The mantas in New Zealand typically did a huge dive in the day after swimming into deeper waters off the continental shelf. They swam sharply down but didn\u2019t spend time at these incredible depths, suggesting they weren\u2019t feeding or hiding from predators. After returning to the surface, some swam over 120 miles in the following few days.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One reason for them to dip so far below the surface could be that they are picking up signals about where they are, such as changes in the Earth\u2019s magnetic field, oxygen, temperature and light levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese dives, which are linked with increased horizontal travel afterwards, may play an important role in helping mantas gather information about their environment and navigate across the open ocean,\u201d says Beale. &#8220;By diving down and &#8216;sampling\u2019 these signals, they could build a mental map that helps them navigate across vast, featureless stretches of open ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In deeper waters, these oceanic clues can be more stable and predictable than at the surface, the scientists say.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Although more research is needed, the study &#8220;reminds us that the deep ocean \u2013 which regulates Earth\u2019s climate and underpins global fisheries \u2013 remains poorly understood but vitally important,\u201d says Beale.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Oceanic-manta-ray-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"Oceanic manta ray\" class=\"wp-image-142694\"\/>Oceanic manta rays are capable of diving to depths of more than 1,200 metres. Credit: Simon Hilbourne | Manta Trust<\/p>\n<p>Top image: Oceanic manta ray. Credit: Guy Stevens | Manta Trust<\/p>\n<p>More wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A team of international researchers has discovered that oceanic\u00a0manta rays\u00a0\u2013 the largest species of ray on the planet&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-217583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}