MIGHTY MANTAS

Research & Awareness

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ABOUT

We, Isabella Beltrán and Emily Lowndes, are students at Academia Cotopaxi, a high school in Ecuador. Mighty Mantas is a project we created that focuses on spreading awareness and collecting information about giant manta rays off the coast of Ecuador. We are collaborating with Fundación Megafauna Marina del Ecuador (FMME), an Ecuador-based foundation that conducts research and raises awareness to help conserve marine megafauna populations. We educate children in the coast of Ecuador about manta rays and the importance of pollution prevention, as well as raise funds to purchase a tracking device that will be attached to a manta ray to gather more information about the animal.

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Home: Who We Are

OUR GOALS

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EDUCATION

One of our goals is to spread awareness by teaching local elementary-age children about these animals, which we do during several trips to Puerto Lopez. It is important for these children to learn that their home is a special place where by far the largest population of mantas have been identified in the entire world; more than 2,700 individual rays have already been identified there. By bringing awareness to the rarity and unique qualities of these fascinating creatures, specifically in Puerto Lopez in the Machalilla National Park, we hope to preserve the population and minimize the harm that is frequently inflicted on these animals

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RESEARCH

One of our goals is to raise money to buy tags—a GPS tracking device that can be attached to a giant manta ray and used to record its migratory patterns. Each tag, which costs $1,975, will help to gather critical data about these animals. Very little information is known about them—including why so many migrate to the coast of Ecuador between May and August—so it is important to gather this information and learn more about these amazing creatures. We have already raised considerable funds, enough to purchase one tag, but we hope to raise enough to purchase at least two more.

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Home: What We Do