Everybody Loves...

Everybody Loves Manta Raymonds

Okay, so the crappy title doesnt work well if youre not familiar with the now ended American sitcom, but the intent is still valid I think.

Okay, so sailors called them devil rays because of the two "horns" at the front, but its hard not to feel the love for these majestic creatures when you actually see them in motion, with thier "wings" gently undulating as they swoop down though the water.

From what I recall these 2 are pretty jevenile and are only about 8ft wide. They used to have just one in there and it was near enough 20ft wide when they remved it (if I remember correctly). The larger one may seem more impressive in many ways (I took some great video of it about 4-5 years ago) but these small ones have so much more room to maneuver. They can swoop and swim along the bottom, I even have a series of (poor) shots of one of them doing a "loop the loop". The larger ones they have mainly just swam back and forth along the top.

The large one was released when it got too big. They bring them in and out by helicopter from nearby in the atlantic if I remeber correctly. 2 years ago when I was there they had 2 of about 12 feet each, I presume they also were released to try these smaller ones.