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Gentle Giants
This Giant Oceanic Manta Ray are fondly called Gentle Giants as despite their size of up to 7 meters wing span, they are harmless to humans. They are filter feeders feeding on tiny planktons and although they are from the Sting Ray family, they no longer have the venomous barb unlike other smaller sized Sting Rays.
In Socorro, this Gentle Giants are exceptionally friendly to scuba divers and they may even hovers stationery allowing divers to get super close-up with them. They also enjoys swimming/hovering above scuba divers to allow the exhaled airs (bubbles) to 'rub' their bellies. It is believes this bubbles irritates the parasites on them and thus helping them to get rid of the parasites.
Previously, they were places under the genus Manta but recently reclassified to under the genus Mobula.
The giant oceanic manta ray is a species of ray in the family Mobulidae, and the largest type of ray in the world. They are circumglobal and are typically found in tropical and subtropical waters, but can also be found in temperate waters.
comments (8)
I believe this one is of good age of easily 20 years or more, as most of the ones we saw are usually at least 5 meters wing span, they can grow up to 7 meters wing span. They are known to live up to 40 years and most of them have been documented (identified) for more than 10 years in this location.
Fun-Fact : Giant Oceanic Manta Rays have the biggest brains of any fish studied so far. Posted 5 years ago