Extraordinary footage shows manta ray appealing to diver for help !

[MoonRiver]

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A giant manta ray has been filmed in Western Australia appearing to appeal a diver to help unlodge dangerous fish hooks that have become embedded in her right eye.

The extraordinary footage of the moving encounter between the injured sea creature and human divers was taken by Monty Halls, a British marine biologist who was part of a freediving group exploring Ningaloo Reef off Australia’s north west coast. Mr Halls called it “one of the best things I’ve ever seen underwater.”

The three-metre-wide manta, which is known affectionately to locals as Freckles, is seen swimming up to Jake Wilton, a snorkeling guide, and flipping over in the water, in what seems to be an attempt to show him her plight.

“You could see she trusted us because she was unrolling and showing us the hooks,” said Mr Wilton in the video. “I went down for a few dives to see how she’d react to us being close to her.”

The footage was released on Thursday by Ningaloo Marine Interactions, the tour company Mr Wilton works for.

Click on link below to see the footage.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/07/12/extraordinary-footage-shows-manta-ray-appealing-diver-help/?fbclid=IwAR3lT_aXMzF_doCO6QTD6npTu8XPrYno6c1XPxQftS95-0PN3dqU4XQNpNo

[GoneRonin]

1. Yes - they did

After reading that article...it doesn't answer the fundamental question - Did they remove the hooks??

I found this other article - and yes - yes they did.

https://people.com/pets/diver-helps-manta-ray-remove-hooks-video/

[MoonRiver]

3. Thank you for that!

I thought I read that they did remove the hooks. Of course the rest of the recovery is up to Ms. Ray, who needs her eye to heal.

[Hortensis]

2. Marvelous, thanks! I couldn't see the video but found one on YouTube.

I don't know that it was the whole thing, but right after that was another video about a manta who, with fishing line wrapped so tight around her that it had cut almost a foot into her, also came up to divers and allowed them to cut it off her.

I wish I dived, and I'm so glad our daughter's family does. At 10, our youngest grandson is finally old enough to be certified and is working on that this month so he'll be ready when they head down to the Caribbean again.

[MoonRiver]

4. Awesome!

[malaise]

5. Some creatures know who they can trust

This is lovely

[MoonRiver]

6. Yes, probably many more than we will ever know.

[erronis]

8. And some of the least trustworty are.... people.

Not naming any groups but certain of them are worse than any natural critter.

[malaise]

11. +1,000

That's the truth

[Karadeniz]

7. Lovely! Wonderful!

[Danascot]

9. A few years ago my wife and I went on a dive trip to the Pacific and saw them

The dive operation offered a couple different trips each day and after the first day or so we went on trip to dive with manta rays. From then on, we went back to see them on every trip, something like 12 or 14 times in all. They appear cruising out of the murk in slow graceful squadrons. On rests between dives we would sometimes see them leaping out of the water. There aren't enough adjectives to relate how magnificent and magical these great creatures are. It's something I'll never forget.

[MoonRiver]

13. Wow, I'm putting that experience in my bucket list!

[smirkymonkey]

10. Beautiful!

How extraordinary!

[mitch96]

12. I recently saw a vid with a dolphin doing the same thing

Came right up to the diver and it was obvious that a hook and line were in the left flipper. It just stayed there while the diver took out the hook and line. When done the dolphin circled the diver and then took off.. I would like to thing it was a act of gratitude...
m

[MoonRiver]

14. How awesome that these beings can trust humans, after all the harm we do to them.

[mitch96]

15. "after all the harm we do to them."

Maybe they didn't get the memo?
m