Cruise Report

Aug 25, 2017

Guest Educator Daniel Fernando is a Sri Lankan marine biologist and conservationist.

“Spread your arms as wide as you can. That’s how big a newborn manta ray is!” Daniel’s presentations are full of surprises and amazing footage of mantas jumping – a behavior that is still not well understood. “It may be a form of communication, a method of getting rid of parasites, or maybe just for fun – no one knows!” he says with a smile. 

“According to a 2013 survey, manta numbers have dropped between 56-86% in the last 5-8 years due to overfishing for their highly priced gills. Let’s make the ocean a wonderful place again.”

Daniel’s talks left us with a strong impression that we have to reevaluate our relationship with the ocean.