11/14/2023 0 Comments Giant manta ray predatorsFinally, we highlight knowledge gaps for future research prioritization and developments in the field for the identification of aggregation sites, the study of aggregation size and demographics and the functions and timing of aggregations. Conservation threats and management mitigation opportunities associated with aggregations sites include fisheries, tourism, spatial protection, and climate change. We find that aggregation behaviors facilitate socializing and key life history functions in mobulids, including feeding, courtship and mating, predation avoidance, cleaning, and thermoregulation. Here, we analyze aggregation behavior for mobulid species, providing consistent definitions for grouping events and summarizing the existing research on drivers and environmental factors triggering these events. However, the terminology used to define these aggregations and the drivers underpinning them remain unclear, hindering the development of effective management and conservation strategies. Studies have identified aggregation sites around the world for all nine mobulid species, with these groupings varying from a few individuals to thousands. Their vulnerability to fisheries exploitation, bycatch, boat collisions, entanglement and unregulated tourism is exacerbated by their aggregative behavior. Manta and devil rays (mobulids) are filter feeding elasmobranchs with extreme K-selective life histories found circumglobally from temperate to tropical waters. 9Tethys Research Institute, Milan, Italy. ![]() 8Institute of Marine Science, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, United States.7Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States.6Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, United States.5Ocean Ecology Lab, Marine Mammal Institute, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife & Conservation Sciences, Oregon State University, Newport, OR, United States. ![]()
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