Become a Manta Hero
Project Manta relies heavily on citizen scientists. Water users who are contributing photographs and observations to the Project Manta database.
Receive updates from the research team and share your own manta ray observations with the manta community.
Follow Project Manta on these social media platforms:
What photo ID can tell us:
Photo identification allows us to follow individual manta rays in the wild to find out information about:
- population size and demography;
- growth rates and age of maturity;
- pregnancy and reproductive activity;
- movements and habitat preferences;
- incidence of injuries.
Share your manta ray photos
Project Manta relies heavily on water users who contribute photographs and videos to the Project Manta database.
"This is what makes them truly special – they will come right up to you and check you out, eyeball you, and swim so close they will brush your body."
Meet, Inspector Clouseau ('Pinky')
Spotted! The world's only pink manta ray, affectionately named Inspector Clouseau (aka 'Pinky') by the Project Manta team.
Manta rays are usually predominently white or black on their undersides, so you can image how fascinated we are by Pinky. A tiny skin biopsy has confirmed his skin is actually pink (no clever editing here!) and because he's continued to exhibit normal behaviours, we're not concerned about his health.
Inspector Clouseau has been seen a number of times at Lady Elliot Island, usually engaging in courtship. As you can imagine, he's quite popular!
We hope to unlock the mystery of why his skin is pink as part of our research.
Video credit: Ryan Jeffery
Read next
Find out more about Project Manta.
Inside a manta ray ‘cyclone’: Mass feeding frenzies hold clues to ocean giant’s future
Project Manta is providing important baseline data to support the long-term conservation of manta rays and their relatives.
UniSC secures grants to research iconic species across Queensland
Learn more about the team behind Project Manta.
Study to uncover secrets of hidden manta ray habitat
Find out more about our research methods and how each is contributing to what we know about manta rays.
Contact the Project Manta team via social media, or by email.