Manta Watch New Zealand

Oooooh what a beauty! Check out the Jewels of Aotea courtesy of Aotea / Great Barrier Local Board

🦎 Sometimes we're so busy trying to protect our native species that we forget to celebrate them!

Here's a fantastic booklet called "Jewels of Aotea", celebrating and educating about the awesome species we have on and around the motu 👇
https://tinyurl.com/jewels-aotea

Hey team! Only three more days until we join you in Wellington for our final short film screening of the year! 😮🎬

This screening is packed with breathtaking footage and in-depth interviews with our research team, giving you a rare chance to see mantas up close on the big screen! 🍿✨

After the film, join us for a Q&A session with project founder Lydia Green, who’s thrilled to bring her expertise to Wellington. 🌊💬

There are still a few tickets left, so don’t miss out! Grab yours via the link in our bio—a portion of each sale goes directly to support the Manta Watch NZ charitable trust. 🎟️💙🐟

We can’t wait to see you there! 💙🌏

•••

🎥:

•••

Happy Halloween! 🎃 Ready to solve some mysteries this year?
Join Manta Watch NZ in uncovering secrets about our Spine-tailed devil rays and Manta rays! 🌊 These graceful creatures aren’t to be feared—but to be endeared.

The deep sea holds more mysteries than you might think… Did you know that over 95% of the ocean remains unexplored, and sunlight only reaches its surface layers? The majority of the ocean lies in total darkness!
Our rays, like ethereal ocean ghosts, glide effortlessly through depths of up to 1,400m, navigating the dark abyss. 👻✨

Here in New Zealand, these rays remain a mystery—do they live here year-round? If not, where do they go? How many are there, and do they give birth here? Researchers and our citizen scientists are just beginning to uncover the answers.

Join us this Halloween as we dive into the unknown and help solve the mysteries of these incredible creatures! 🌊

📹: Lydia green/ , Mark Erdmann, The International sea keepers society

Ever wondered if a manta ray can go to sleep? 😴

Like most of their cousins (sharks), manta ray need to continuously swim forward in order to breath.

By swimming forward with their mouths open, it allows oxygen rich water to flow in and get absorbed through their gills.

This means moving backwards or sleeping on the sand is not an option for them as their gills could potentially flood and suffocate.

So unlike us, our flappy friends do not have an afternoon siesta!

📷: Mark Erdmann

Calling all Northland friends❗️Don’t forget to book your tickets for Tuesday’s Kerikeri screening of our short film (link in bio). This will be one of our last screenings, so be sure to book in to see some mantas on the big screen 🩵 see you Tuesday at 6pm ✨

···

Another manta-tastic sold out screening and Q&A at 💙 thank you to everyone who came, we were stoked to hear all of your questions!

If you missed us yesterday, be sure to catch us next Tuesday (October 8th) in Kerikeri 🤙 head to the link in our bio to book your tickets now 🎟️

Special thanks to our pals at for being there too!

···

We’re very excited to be back at the Bridgeway for another screening of the our short film! The screening will be part of the final tour for the foreseeable future, and we sold out last time, so book your tickets now. Plus, $5 each ticket sold will be donated to the Manta Watch NZ Charitable Trust 💙🎬

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the projects passionate founder Lydia, who is excited to share the magic of these incredible animals 😍🌊

We can’t wait to see you on Tuesday, remember to bring your friends and whānau 🍿✨

···

📸: Lydia Green

Friends you haven’t seen in ages🍿, a cheeky date night 💑, or just an excuse to get out of the house—Manta Watch NZ has got you covered! 🐋

Tāmaki Makaurau peeps, haere mai to the Bridgeway cinema on October 1st 📅
Can’t make that? Don’t worry, Kerikeri—we’ll be visiting you on October 8th at Cathy Cinema 🌊.

Manta Watch NZ: Discovering Aotearoa's Gentle Giants is our film, which has been screened over 30 times, including at international film festivals! 🎥🌍

Keen to learn more about our project and how to get involved? Join us next week! 🙌 Click the link in our bio or scan the QR code to get your tickets - get in quick you don’t wanna miss out

The screening will be followed by an interactive Q&A with Manta Watch NZ Founder Lydia, who’s excited to chat and share project updates. 🎤💬
A portion of each ticket sold will be donated to the Manta Watch NZ Charitable Trust. 💙🎟️

We'd love to see you there—please spread the word! 😊✨

World manta day is set to return on the 17th of September!

This special day is a day to celebrate our flappy friends and raise awareness of the threats they are facing.

This years theme, the power of storytelling, emphasises the important role storytelling plays in manta ray conservation. We believe every story can make a difference in protecting these gentle giants 💙

Stay tuned for some exciting things coming up to celebrate 🥳

📸: Mark Erdmann

🌊🦋 Mantas: The Brainy Giants of the Ocean! 🦋🌊

Manta rays are the true overachievers of the fish world—giant, charismatic, and surprisingly intelligent 🧠.

Did you know they have the largest brains of any fish 🤯

A manta’s brain can be ten times larger than a whale shark’s. Not only is the brain physically big, but it’s also large relative to the ray’s body. That’s another sign of super smartness, true of elephants, dolphins, and people too.

These inquisitive giants even enjoy checking out their reflections, mantas are one of the few species that have passed the mirror test, where they were filmed checking out their reflections in a way that suggests they are self-aware.

Given how majestic they are, who can blame them? 💙

Encounters with mantas are often incredibly interactive, as these gentle giants display a remarkable curiosity toward divers and snorkelers. These interactions offer a unique glimpse into their intelligence and awareness.

Even more reasons why we love them.

📷: Lydia green/ and Mark Erdmann

There has been some epic shark and ray conservation mahi happening this week in Fiji. The MWNZ team have been working hard and submitted 3 ISRA (Important Shark and Ray Areas) proposals for manta and devil rays in Aotearoa. We'll keep you posted on our submissions progress!

Massive thanks to Important Shark and Ray Areas - ISRAs for this mahi and your guidance.

Manta factoid!!!

Did you know all manta rays have downward facing eyes, allowing them to see below and to the side?? 👀

Due to the positioning of their eyes, mantas are unable to see directly in front or behind aka Manta Blind Spots!

That’s why we always try and approach a manta ray from the side so that they can get a good look at us and figure out that we aren’t a potential predator. Manta rays will often swim below you with their belly’s facing up to get a better look. As researchers, we often use this behaviour to our advantage, as it’s the perfect opportunity to take a photo or video of the manta ray’s belly. Belly spots are unique to each manta and can be used to identify individuals. Photo IDs are research gold!

To learn more information about how to encounter a manta ray in a safe and respectful way head over to our website (link in bio) to read our best practice guide for Manta Ray encounters in NZ!

📷: Lydia green/

Manta morphology 101! A quick guide to the unique anatomy of manta rays; from their their distinctive cephalic (head) fins to their stingless tails 🔍💙 swipe for dorsal (top side) and ventral (underside) views!

···

📸: Edy Setywan and Mark Erdmann

···

Kia ora e te manta whanau 👋🏽

Winter is our time for recuperation, reflection and planning (for the next season).
This past manta season has been a challenging one‼️A very unsettled Tangaroa and an equally headstrong La Niña weather pattern has meant a severe lack of calm summer conditions we rely upon to conduct manta surveys during the peak times 📉. Adaptation is key when you're constantly working with things you can't control (the weather 🌧️, the ocean 🌊 and a highly elusive non-air breathing species 😆). We know that we don't make things easy for ourselves, but overall, we've learnt a lot and miraculously have achieved heaps 😊

This year we deployed 5 of our 8 satellite tags all on 1 calm day, and the majority of our survey effort has been concentrated to a couple of protected bays in the outer Hauraki Gulf. This has enabled our team to really focus in on some very special areas and learn the local patterns and happenings with some fantastic results.

Boat access 🛥️ has also been tricky this year, but luckily, we've had some helping hands not only getting us out into key areas, but also providing extra resource. Special thanks to the Klein family for their support, expertise and boats, to for dedicating one of their vessels and crew for manta surveys this past summer and Northland Dive for creating and hosting NZ's first multiday manta expeditions. That intensive survey effort at the end of Feb enabled us to get out those last 3 tags out and check out some potential cleaning stations.

85% of all data collected this season came from citizen scientists👩‍🔬 . We can't emphasise enough how important this data is and how your submissions target our survey effort and broaden the project's scope way beyond our small team's capacity. Massive thanks to everyone that has submitted sightings to the project this season, please continue to do so 💗

This season has also been HUGE from a public engagement perspective, talking mantas on TV with Seven Sharp and AM and the release of our first short film in NZ and Internationally. Again, big thanks to everyone that has supported our screening events so far, venues, co-hosts, audiences... we can't wait to do it all again in October 🤭‼️

Finally special mentions and thanks to our primary research partners Conservation International, and . To Live Ocean for partnering with us this year, we love having you in our corner and supporting our manta mahi! To SALTY SLATE Ltd.for your talent and telling our story so beautifully. To our wider Manta Trust whanau for your continued support and expertise. To for being instrumental in our Tuhua sat tag retrieval mission, definitely more collabs in our future. To and for being the primary funders of our Project Scientist and Education Officer roles - without your wage support none of the above would have been possible. And last but definitely not least, big shout out to Rika Ozaki for your support and dedication to the project, both through your Masters thesis and as our exemplary social media whiz and content creator 🙂

••••

🎨 : Rika Ozaki

••••