MANTA RAY

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Samantha Frances is a contemporary, abstract realism artist from East Devon, Southwest England. Her work is largely of aspects of the natural world, principally marine life, inspired by her coastal living and outdoors lifestyle. Through bold colours contrasted by minimalist backgrounds, her watercolours and oils are bright, uplifting and feel fresh and engaging; they complement contemporary and traditional spaces alike. In focusing particularly on natural energies, seasonal traits, habitats and relationships between colour, shadows, light and movement she captures the movement and energy of nature and uses her work to draw attention to the plight of species. Samantha is a registered Plastic Free champion and has worked in support of local ocean-based charities

The Oceanic Manta Ray (Mobula birostris) is a large (to 700 cm disc width) ray with a circumglobal distribution in tropical and temperate waters throughout the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans in coastal and pelagic waters from the surface to a depth of 1,000 m. Within this broad range, aggregations are sparsely distributed and while individuals are capable of long-distance movements they do so infrequently and exhibit a degree of philopatry resulting in a high likelihood of local depletion. The global population size is not known, but local and regional abundance has been estimated and is mostly small, numbering less than 500 individuals, except for Ecuador where abundance is estimated at more than 2,000 individuals. The species has an extremely slow life history, producing only 1 pup on average every 4–5 years, and consequently is likely to have one of the lowest maximum rates of population increase (median 0.032 per year) of any elasmobranch. Oceanic Manta Rays are targeted or taken as bycatch in artisanal small-scale fisheries, as well as taken as bycatch in large-scale tuna fisheries. The meat is consumed locally, and the species is traded internationally due to the rapid rise of the valuable gill plate trade. Where Oceanic Manta Ray are protected (in over a dozen countries and territories), and hence where they are not being fished, the sighting trends appear stable. Elsewhere, however, very rapid declines have been noted in sightings records and landings where they are targeted or caught as bycatch; these range from 71 to 95% declines over 13- to 21-year periods (all less than one generation length of 29 years). It is suspected that the Oceanic Manta Ray has undergone a population reduction of 50–79% over the past three generation lengths (87 years), with further population reduction suspected over the next three generation lengths (2018–2105) due to current and ongoing levels of exploitation, and a reduction in area of occupancy due to suspected local and regional extinctions, and it is assessed as Endangered (EN A2bcd+A3d).

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