Close-up of a Manta Ray Eye

Eye of the Manta

Tue, Apr 19th, 2011 | Marine Life 2 Comments

Here is a photo to augment the story I posted yesterday about the manta ray that made a strange noise, then turned and swam directly into me…a picture I took when the manta slammed into my left elbow.

I took this photo with my right hand when my left arm got hit by the manta

This photo is not cropped. The framing is a little off due to the impact, but I captured this image with the 10mm end of a Tokina 10-17mm fisheye lens on a Canon 7D, so you can see that the manta’s eye was basically right on top of my dome port.

The manta had been swimming in front of me, facing the other direction. After it made the strange sound, it turned around, swam directly at me, then rammed right into me.

For clarity, I was stopped in the water, not moving at all. In fact, I had balled up to brace for possible impact, which turned out to be a good idea, since, well…there was impact!

For everyone who’s expressed doubt, I know how implausible this sounds, but, well…it happened.

Tags: Indian Ocean, Manta, Manta birostris, Manta Ray, Ray, Sri Lanka

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http://profiles.google.com/timochu Timothy Chu

Is it possible the noise came from elsewhere, causing the manta to react unpredictably? Or possibly the sound is a cuss word in Mantaese…you’d best be learn it to give a response next time a Manta is headed your way with that twinkle of vengeance in its eye.
http://www.tonywublog.com/ Tony Wu

Anything is possible. There was nothing even remotely close though, like boats or other animals. This was in the middle of the ocean, not near land.

The animal also made the same sound twice, in the exact same circumstance, and behaved exactly the same way both times.

So, while I can’t rule anything out, there’s not much to suggest that the sound was from something else. It’s perplexing in any event.