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Gentle Giant

August 19, 2012

In June, WHOI postdoctoral student Kelton McMahon and colleagues attached tags to nine giant oceanic manta rays in the Phoenix Islands during a month-long research trip to observe the ecology of remote coral reef systems. The tags, which send data to researchers via satellite and will automatically release in March 2013, help McMahon observe the movement patterns of the rays and other large fish in the tropical Pacifiic. Despite this manta ray’s intimidating, six-foot width, McMahon said it was calm in the presence of human divers and kept feeding as they observed it.

(Photo by Kelton McMahon, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution )