Cruise Report

25th Aug 2017

Daniel Fernando, a marine biologist and conservationist from Sri Lanka, has been working on researches and conservation of marine life. He showed a photo that captured a manta jumping out of water in his lecture. “Wow! I didn’t know that mantas jumped!” heard surprised voices among the audience. Daniel smiled and said “The reason that mantas jump is not known yet. It might be a way of communicating each other or getting parasites off their bodies. Maybe they do it just for fun. It’s a mystery of mantas.”

“According to the research in 2013, the total number of mantas has dropped off by 56 to 86% in the last 5 to 8 years. The gills of mantas are traded at a high price. If we can cooperate all together, we can conserve the nature for the future.” he said at the end of his lecture. It was an important opportunity for us to learn about mantas, and think about the relations between the human beings and ocean.