Giant Manta Ray sighted in the Bay (Video)

The Puerto Vallarta Fishing Club shared a video on social media by Captain Adrián Peña, where he captured a giant manta (Manta birostris) in Banderas Bay.

The video was taken Saturday with a brief message: ‘Sighting of a giant blanket in Banderas Bay, beautiful specimen’.

The University Center of the Coast has been conducting research on this species in the bay for several years, information that has not yet been published beyond the university campus and some communities of the bay, where a sanctuary of giant mantas has been established, and whose secret location is meant to preserve the place as a research and non-tourist center, with all the inconveniences that this activity would bring to the reproduction, feeding, and habitat in general of that species.

Students of CUC, scientists from the University of Guadalajara, and invited scientists from different parts of the world, come to this sanctuary with the knowledge of only some fishermen, to study the behavior of this species.

The Manta Ray is a species of Myliobatiformes of the Myliobatidae family and the only one within the Manta classification.

Manta rays are related to stingrays. Both have flattened body shapes and wide pectoral fins that are fused to the head. One of the biggest differences between manta rays and stingrays is that manta rays do NOT have a tail “stinger” or barb like stingrays. There are other differences as well.