Maldives celebrates World Manta Day

28 September, 2022

As many of you will be aware, due to the National Rail strikes which took place on September 17th, we unfortunately had to cancel our World Manta Day: An Evening with Doug Allan event. As disappointing as this was, we hope to be able to reschedule this for 2023, so keep your eyes peeled for more updates in future newsletters and on our social media. Despite this, our supporters were as incredible as ever with their response, sending us good wishes and supporting World Manta Day in other creative ways! So what else did we get up to for World Manta Day? Read on to find out!

MALDIVIAN MANTA CELEBRATIONS

World Manta Day celebrations were buzzing across our Maldivian projects, with some special activities organised across the archipelago! The teams in Laamu, Baa and Raa Atoll had a whole week of celebrations, including manta-themed cocktail parties, naming competitions, educational talks, manta dress-up, dive trips, island clean-ups and even VR experiences!

They also conducted outreach events to share their love for manta rays in the local community. The Baa team joined students at Kamahdoo school to hold stalls and activities to teach their peers about these incredible ocean giants, whilst the Laamu team hosted a snorkel event in Maabaidhoo, which is just next to one of their favourite manta sites. The celebrations looked fantastic, and it certainly looked like everyone had an incredible time celebrating manta rays!

EDUCATION SESSIONS

The theme of this year's World Manta Day was education, so to celebrate, our Education Manager, Jen, held a family-friendly virtual session about Ocean Giants. Participants were able to test their knowledge on marine megafauna with a short quiz before hearing more about the magnificent manta ray. If anyone furthered their celebration by creating poems, stories, artwork etc, please send them in! We’d love to see what you’ve created! You can send them to the team directly using the contact button below, or why not tag us in a social media post!

Send us your creations!

T-SHIRT DESIGN COMPETITION WINNER

We had some fantastic entries for our World Manta Day T-shirt design competition, but the winner selected by a vote was this fantastic design by Susy Collins! The t-shirt is available to buy now in our Teemill store, made from organic cotton, printed to order in the UK in a renewable energy powered factory and packaged without plastic. Every product in the Manta Trust store is designed to be sent back to Teemill when worn out to be made again and again into new products, so it is a fantastic choice for ethical fashion and gifts! Why not visit our Teemill store to check out this and see all the other amazing products we have on offer!  

Visit our shop

OUR EDUCATION IMPACT

Since the start of this year, Education Manager Jen has engaged with over 2500 children and young people from over 30 different schools in the UK! Our education sessions aim to connect people to the oceans and foster a love of marine life, hopefully creating a lot more ocean guardians in the future! With huge thanks to Onceayear Global Ocean and the Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust who help make our education work possible. If you want to book a session with Jen, or make use of our free resources, you can visit our education portal below!

SUPPORT MANTA CONSERVATION

World Manta Day may be over for this year, but we work to protect mantas all year round! If you love mantas and would like to support us, why not sign up to become a member of The Cyclone and access exclusive manta content from our global projects, or adopt a manta ray as an eco friendly gift for an ocean loving friend! your money will go directly to support manta ray conservation across the world. Find out more below! 

Adopt a Manta

Did you know?

Whilst the Maldives are home to our beloved manta rays, the Manta Trust also monitor and study their smaller relatives, the mobula rays.

Lhaviyani Atoll is a great place to spot manta rays during the manta season, but there is also an abundance of mobula rays here. One hotspot to see these is just off of Hurwalhi resort, where our Lhaviyani team are based, at a dive site called KFFK or Kahlifushifaru. 

Having looked over the past twelve months of recorded sightings (thank you Prodivers Maldives) during SCUBA dives at KFFK, we found that there were 111 mobula ray sightings during 288 dives, sometimes with 10-15 cruising together along with the current. These numbers are exceptionally exciting, as all mobula ray species in Maldives are currently listed as Endangered.