Scubaism

UPDATE:  The baby manta has died after four days. Officials at Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium suggest that the manta’s death was caused by its father chasing and slamming into it for yet unknown reasons.

From National Geographic news article by Blake de Pastino.

You might say she’s a little ray of hope.

On Saturday, officials at a Japanese aquarium announced the birth of this not-so-small bundle of joy: a giant manta ray, said to be the first ever born in captivity.

The baby female came into the world larger than most adult humans—6.2 feet (1.9 meters) across—but in giant manta terms, she’s still a mere sprout. Her mother has a wingspan of nearly 17 feet (4.2 meters).

A video of the birth, which aired on Japanese national TV, showed the newborn emerging from her mother rolled up like a tube before unfurling her fins and swimming on her own.

According to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in southern Japan, the pup was born after 374 days of gestation—more than three months longer than a human pregnancy—and the baby and both parents seemed to be in good health.

The arrival of the as-yet-unnamed baby ray provides an opportunity to observe the famously elusive creatures throughout their life cycle, aquarium officials added.

“This is not only a celebration for the first [captive birth] in the world but also [a] splendid achievement to clarify the biology of manta rays, which are still cloaked in mystery,” officials said in a statement.

Giant mantas, the world’s largest rays, are listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as near threatened due to pressures from overfishing. But until recently the big rays had no official status because so little was known about them.

Joaquin Costa of Scuba Herald added these bits to the story:

The mother manta, which was brought to the aquarium in 1998 after hitting a fishnet off the southern island of Okinawa, about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo, mated with its partner on June 8, 2006.

Aquarium official Minoru Toda said little has been known about the life of manta rays, and the record of pregnancy and the birth would provide valuable scientific data to the studies of the species.

“We unfolded some of the mysteries about the life of manta rays, including the length of their pregnancy,” Toda said. “Now we have to make sure the baby grows in good health.”

The event marks the first birth of a manta in captivity, according to the aquarium, which started raising manta rays in 1988.

Noriyasu Suzuki, an official at the Izu-Mito Sea Paradise commercial aqua zoo in western Japan, said he thought the birth in captivity could be a world first.

“I’ve never heard of any other case before,” he said. “Aquariums that raise manta rays are rare to begin with … because they get so big.”