MANTA TRUST AND SIX SENSES LAAMU CELEBRATE 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

The Manta Trust is extremely excited to celebrate the remarkable support of Six Senses Laamu over the past 10 years. Over the last couple of months the team has worked on an anniversary video in which the Manta Trust staff, present and past, have summarized some of the achievements in Laamu over the years. We’d like to take you on a short trip to memory lane with us:

It all began in 2014 when the Manta Trust first  launched their pilot programme at Six Senses Laamu. 

By the end of 2015, we had already identified over 100 individual reef manta rays of which many are still sighted today.

In 2016, the team saw a peak in courtship activity with 123 courtship encounters witnessed! The research methods began to diversify with paired-laser photogrammetry to start measuring manta ray’s true size and the first biopsy samplings were conducted. In this year, the team pitched an exciting ultrasound project to BCF Technologies and Vetsonics Ltd in Glasgow. Together with Marteyne, General Manager of Six Senses Laamu, and Ray Rochester, who had the initial idea and supports the project until today, this pitch quickly became reality. Marteyne even traveled all the way to Scotland to talk to the engineers herself!

The first trial of the contactless underwater ultrasound scanner happened in 2017 and it obtained the first ever ultrasound scan of a manta ray pup in the wild!

In 2018 there was a record number of pregnancies (16!) recorded in the Laamu Atoll reef manta ray population, emphasizing the importance of using new ultrasound technology for research in the area. 

In 2019, the team managed to distribute snorkel equipment to every school in the atoll and since then have had so many great snorkel camps with the kids of Laamu and the MUI team. That year was also the start of the Manta Speciality dive course and fishermen interviews in the area. 

In 2020 the team started their Eyes On The Reef research to keep monitoring the cleaning stations when diving was not always possible. These remote underwater cameras have since become a standard research tool for the team. In this year the team also virtually celebrated the first World Manta Day! 

Manta Trust Laamu Staff Say Thank You to Six Senses Laamu for 10 years of partnership!

A collaborative research effort between the Manta Trust, Six Senses Laamu, Blue Marine Foundation, and Olive Ridley Project contributed to the designation of six marine protected areas in Laamu in 2021.

In 2022 the team started to gather in depth information from Laamu’s fishers to learn from them about manta ray sightings. It was so nice to see the support and hospitality from the community - within just one month the team managed to interview over 120 fishermen and we learned so much from them! It was also the year the Manta Trust launched the RahVeshi Programme. Thanks to Six Senses Laamu and our extended support network, the Manta Trust has since been able to run three community-based projects across the Maldives extending our research and education efforts to more remote parts of the country. 

In 2023 MUI was of course celebrating the opening of SHELL, with a big highlight being the life sized manta ray models of true Laamu manta rays. Together with the University of Cambridge, the Manta Trust published the first ever paper on the use of the contactless underwater ultrasound scanning of wild manta rays, many of them being Laamu mantas. 2023 was also the year in which the Manta Trust team managed to obtain the most ultrasound scans since the beginning of the project in Laamu in this year and were excited to see that Laamu’s manta rays were finally pregnant again! Together with the Six Senses team of MUI, the Manta Trust used their long term data collection to successfully allocate three ISRAs (Important Shark and Ray areas) within Laamu atoll! The team also started investigating the acoustic soundscapes and recording 3D models of Laamu’s cleaning stations!

Thanks to Six Senses Laamu, the Manta Trust was also able to create a new position - the Manta Trust’s first Community Internship in Laamu which, now in 2024, is being developed into a full time community role! 

What a mantastic decade of collaboration, the entire Manta Trust team would like to extend their deepest gratitude for the huge support these research and community projects have received through Six Senses Laamu over the last ten years.