1
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,960
The first time I saw a manta
it took my breath away.

2
00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:38,000
It just came out of the gloom
right towards me and it was like

3
00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:40,800
the most beautiful
underwater bird I'd ever seen.

4
00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:45,960
It was so majestic

5
00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:51,560
and I couldn't even focus on anything
except this magnificent animal.

6
00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:02,880
This chance meeting changed the
course of Andrea Marshall's life.

7
00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:07,200
Manta rays are unlike anything
I've ever been in the water with.

8
00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:09,720
They're inquisitive,
they will engage a diver.

9
00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,200
It's just an amazing experience
to be with them

10
00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:17,040
because you can actually see
that they want to interact with you,
and they are quite curious.

11
00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:24,080
And it was a brief encounter,
but at the same time I knew then that
I would never be the same again.

12
00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:31,600
Abandoning her life in California,
the young biologist moved to Africa

13
00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:33,840
for a life with manta rays.

14
00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:41,000
Her dream,
to find out all there is to know
about these mysterious creatures.

15
00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:50,560
And seven years on, her work has
rocked the world of science

16
00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:53,880
with the discovery of
a new species of Giant manta

17
00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:58,640
and remarkable new findings
about how they live their lives.

18
00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:07,520
But around the world, mantas are in
trouble - their numbers crashing.

19
00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:13,760
It is terribly frightening
that something as beautiful and as
important as a manta ray

20
00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:16,120
could ever be brought
to the brink of extinction.

21
00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:21,040
From fighting to protect
these beautiful rays

22
00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:26,160
to ground breaking revelations
about their secretive lives,

23
00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:31,440
this film charts a remarkable year
of Andrea's life living with mantas.

24
00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:56,320
Tofo Beach, Mozambique

25
00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:59,160
where the Indian Ocean
meets the east coast of Africa.

26
00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:09,920
And it's here, on this wild,
inaccessible stretch of coast,
that Andrea lives and works.

27
00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:18,560
Look at him! Too cool!

28
00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:21,200
We've motored
about five miles down the coast

29
00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:23,760
to dive at one of the
many inshore reefs off here.

30
00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:30,000
The place we're going today is called
Manta Reef and it's a renowned
cleaning station for manta rays.

31
00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:34,360
Every day,
Andrea makes the ten-mile round trip

32
00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:37,640
to one of the many reefs that
are scattered amongst these waters.

33
00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:41,240
I think we should dive the
south side of the reef today.

34
00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:44,480
So about another 400 metres, and
slightly to the left would be good.

35
00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:48,440
And it's amongst these newly
discovered reefs, that Andrea has

36
00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:53,240
found one of the largest populations
of manta rays in the world.

37
00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:08,360
Do me a favour, if you see any
pregnant ones down there, just keep
a track of how many that you see.

38
00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:10,200
We'll be about 40 minutes, OK?

39
00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:32,640
Several major currents converge at
Tofo, creating some of the richest
waters on the African coast.

40
00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:40,560
I hadn't actually seen anything
quite like the Mozambique
coastline when I first came here.

41
00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:42,560
There was just so much life here.

42
00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:45,840
It was like the Galapagos
of the Indian Ocean.

43
00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:49,960
There's so much plankton, it
turns the waters cloudy

44
00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:54,200
drawing in leviathans from across
the Indian Ocean to feed.

45
00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:07,160
And it's here,
living amongst these reefs

46
00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:11,720
that Andrea has discovered more
than 650 manta rays.

47
00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:29,600
With a wingspan of up to
seven-and-a-half metres, mantas are
the largest of all the rays.

48
00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:38,160
Once feared as dangerous devil fish,
they're in fact harmless giants,

49
00:05:38,160 --> 00:05:41,880
feeding only on the tiny plants and
animals that make up the plankton.

50
00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:51,520
Yet intriguingly,
mantas could be one of the most
intelligent creatures in the ocean.

51
00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:57,560
For their size, they have
the largest brain of any fish,
and no-one knows why.

52
00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:03,520
They almost have personalities.

53
00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:07,720
Some of them are more shy,
some of them are more bold.

54
00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:11,320
Some of them love bubbles on
their tummies, some of them don't.

55
00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:15,040
They don't swim away from you like
a normal shark or fish would.

56
00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:19,040
So they really engage you,
and it makes working
on them all the more fun.

57
00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:21,480
And that's a great
feeling as a biologist

58
00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:24,800
to actually have a connection with
the animal you're working with.

59
00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:32,040
Despite their size and
curious nature, very little
is known about manta rays.

60
00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:41,280
So armed with her camera,
Andrea records every move they make.

61
00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:46,640
With each dive, she's discovering
more and more about them.

62
00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:50,800
Building up an intimate
picture of their secretive lives.

63
00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:01,880
Did you see Jo?
She was one of the pregnant ones.

64
00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:06,120
That's the second year
I've seen her consecutively pregnant.
That's amazing.

65
00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:11,280
We saw a number of individuals,
maybe about ten.

66
00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:14,680
A lot of ones that I knew,
a couple of ones that I didn't know,

67
00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:20,080
a lot of ID shots, so there
should be a lot of information
there, a few pregnant ones.

68
00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:24,040
So that's a good sign.
That's exactly what we want to see.

69
00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:39,000
From this straw hut, Andrea runs
the Mozambican Manta Ray Project.

70
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:43,440
And with the support of the Save our
Seas foundation she's transforming

71
00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:49,120
this remote site on Tofo Beach
into one of the leading research
centres in the Indian Ocean.

72
00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:54,680
At the moment I'm actually
uploading my photos from today's dive

73
00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:58,120
just to check the individuals
I saw on the reef today.

74
00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:04,400
Like a fingerprint,
every manta's born with a
unique spot pattern on its belly.

75
00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:11,080
And it's the shape of these spots
that gives Andrea the inspiration
for naming her mantas.

76
00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:17,680
I try and see an image. So I have
basically have named all 650 mantas
after something that pops out at me.

77
00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:22,120
So I have names
ranging from cartoon characters,
all the way to presidents.

78
00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:28,360
Andrea calls the two new arrivals
Spotty and Bleeding Heart.

79
00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:34,320
And they join the likes
of Homer Simpson and Dracula
on her growing database.

80
00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:39,920
What's important is not the name, but
the fact that when I'm on the reef
I know all the different individuals

81
00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:43,360
I'm seeing, and the picture
becomes so much more clear.

82
00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:45,560
It's a more intimate type
of research

83
00:08:45,560 --> 00:08:49,240
and it's quite exciting because they
are kind of like my little children.

84
00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:57,280
And after thousands of dives with
Mozambique's mantas, Andrea's
beginning to understand their lives.

85
00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:03,120
She's found that many of them
are resident to these waters.

86
00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:08,920
But what surprised her the most was
that 80% of the mantas were female.

87
00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:17,200
I really strongly believe this is
one of the most important sites,
a critical habitat for manta rays.

88
00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:23,440
They are coming here to mate,
the females are hanging around
for most of the year to give birth,

89
00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:30,000
find mates and have their pups
which is probably
why they occur in such large numbers.

90
00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:44,400
By sheer luck Andrea had not only
discovered one of the largest
populations of mantas in the world,

91
00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:47,720
but she'd stumbled across
a manta breeding site.

92
00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:52,400
There is nowhere else like
it in the world.

93
00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:09,000
But living in such a remote corner
of Africa has been far from easy.

94
00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:16,400
'It was very intimidating when
I first moved to Mozambique.

95
00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:19,320
'I actually didn't know
anyone when I first came here.'

96
00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:24,400
I try and act tough sometimes,
but I am a girl that came
from a sheltered environment.

97
00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:30,080
I grew up in California with a lot
of close friends and family and it
was tough for the first few years.

98
00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:35,400
'But at the same time, I knew
it was going to be well worth
the effort that was put in.'

99
00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:41,600
I get a bit nervous driving
around here, because people
hit a lot of people on these roads.

100
00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:44,320
These roads are terrible.

101
00:10:45,560 --> 00:10:47,920
What are you doing?

102
00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:49,360
CAR HORN TOOTS

103
00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,360
Speaking of why it is
dangerous to live in Africa!

104
00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:06,720
It's November and the manta
breeding season has begun.

105
00:11:09,640 --> 00:11:15,280
It's a key time for Andrea and dive
buddy and research partner,
Simon Pierce,

106
00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:18,400
but it going to be
a dangerous launch.

107
00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:25,200
Conditions are pretty miserable
today. There's huge swells.

108
00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:27,440
Short distance between the waves.

109
00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:29,520
It's not ideal at all.

110
00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:31,560
It's actually quite dangerous.

111
00:11:31,560 --> 00:11:34,120
People have
flipped boats here before.

112
00:11:34,120 --> 00:11:37,000
People have
lost people over the side of boats.

113
00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:39,240
But, you know,
it's the only way we can get out.

114
00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:54,400
With waves of up to three metres,
no coastguard,

115
00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:58,600
and the nearest doctor 30 miles away
there's no room for error.

116
00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:17,960
You know you've got to get out.

117
00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:20,400
I mean there's no harbours
to launch from here,

118
00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:23,680
and so basically if I don't get out,
I don't get to do my research.

119
00:12:23,680 --> 00:12:25,720
SHE WHOOPS

120
00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:38,600
Today Andrea is setting up a state
of the art acoustic tagging study.

121
00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:42,560
It will record what her reef mantas
do when she's not around.

122
00:12:46,120 --> 00:12:50,000
But to get the project started,
she's got to be
good with a spear gun.

123
00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:53,360
My shot's pretty good, you know.

124
00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:55,360
We pick a place on the manta
to shoot,

125
00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:58,800
and I'm usually within a couple of
inches of that shot,

126
00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:02,040
so, I think I'm all right at least
on my shot. Just not on loading.

127
00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:05,240
Well, it helps that she's
only about that far away!

128
00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:19,400
As they make their way
down to Manta Reef,

129
00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:23,200
Andrea spots one of the ocean's
rarest creatures.

130
00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:35,040
It's a small-eyed stingray.

131
00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:43,400
Tofo is the only place in the world
where they've ever been seen alive.

132
00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:54,840
At more
than two-and-a-half metres across,
it's the largest of the stingrays.

133
00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:04,760
And this brief encounter
is the first footage
ever to be shown of them.

134
00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:18,720
As the ray moves off,
Andrea and Simon set to work
anchoring a special "listening post"

135
00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:20,240
to the seabed.

136
00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:26,240
For the next 12 months,
it will monitor the mantas'

137
00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:28,640
day-to-day movements
around the reef.

138
00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:37,400
A manta Andrea's known for
four years, called Tri-Star

139
00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:41,640
is the first to get a tiny acoustic
transmitter attached to her back.

140
00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:49,840
She's now emitting her very
own signature tune.

141
00:14:49,840 --> 00:14:51,880
FAINT BEEPING

142
00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:59,360
Whenever Tri-Star comes within
400 metres of the listening post,

143
00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:04,080
it will detect her signal,
logging her in and out of the reef.

144
00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:18,200
Got a tag on Tri-Star which
is one of my favourites...

145
00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:21,440
I've known her since 2004,
so that was really exciting.

146
00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:24,520
And she was pregnant again
so that was fantastic.

147
00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:29,880
I'll just go back and see
what kind of data we can get
from her in a few months.

148
00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:35,520
Over the coming days, five more
reef mantas will be tagged.

149
00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:40,680
These acoustic tags are giving us
24-hour information, 365 days a year.

150
00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:43,360
So it's really fantastic technology.

151
00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:53,080
Back underwater,
the mantas arrive on the reef
in ever-increasing numbers.

152
00:15:57,160 --> 00:16:01,080
During November
they gather here to court and mate.

153
00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:06,760
And the displays
can be breathtaking.

154
00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:22,760
Before Andrea started her work in
Mozambique, very little was known
about manta breeding behaviour.

155
00:16:22,760 --> 00:16:28,400
A female manta, when she's ready,
when she wants to mate, she will

156
00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:30,480
lead males on almost a chase

157
00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:36,160
and you usually get
a single large female followed
by what's called a train

158
00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:37,400
of many males.

159
00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:43,280
Sometimes one or two,
and sometimes it's twenty.

160
00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:47,400
And they will chase her around
the reef at high speeds and basically

161
00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:51,080
everything that she does, the
males will actually do behind her.

162
00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:54,040
It's almost uncanny,
so it's beautiful to see.

163
00:16:55,760 --> 00:17:01,600
If she banks, they bank,
if she turns, they turn,
if she flips, they flip.

164
00:17:05,120 --> 00:17:10,160
Mantas usually give
birth to a single pup
after a 12 month pregnancy.

165
00:17:16,360 --> 00:17:22,920
But in another manta first,
Andrea's found it's very rare
for them to pup each year.

166
00:17:25,160 --> 00:17:30,600
That's one of the very
important distinctions that
I've made here in Mozambique.

167
00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:34,600
Manta rays often have one or
two years off in between pregnancies,

168
00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:37,040
and that's probably
to recoup energy stores.

169
00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:42,560
So the fact that they only have one
pup every two to three years,

170
00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:47,760
is a very, very important in terms
of conserving them because it means
that they don't have the ability

171
00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:50,280
to repopulate
if they're under threat,

172
00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:52,760
for instance,
from fishing pressure.

173
00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:08,440
With manta rays reproducing
so slowly

174
00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:13,680
the only way for Andrea to protect
them is to make regular visits
to the fishing communities

175
00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:16,640
that line Mozambique's
sparsely populated coast.

176
00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:26,720
I want to know what season
the people take and kill the manta
rays here, what time of year?

177
00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:32,480
He says in the summer months
when the mantas are at the surface -

178
00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:36,200
that's their breeding season -
they will kill a lot,
so that is very disturbing

179
00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:39,320
and that's probably why
they catch a lot of pregnant females.

180
00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:43,640
The fishermen here
are just trying to survive.

181
00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:46,680
They don't know
that these populations are fragile.

182
00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:51,080
They don't understand that by taking
even what seems like a few to them,

183
00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:53,920
they can have
devastating and permanent effects.

184
00:18:55,440 --> 00:18:58,800
And it's not just mantas
that are being hauled in.

185
00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:04,040
Who do they sell this to?

186
00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:07,000
HE ASKS QUESTION IN LOCAL DIALECT

187
00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:11,560
We know that there are Chinese
syndicates along this coastline

188
00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:13,840
that are buying shark fins
for a lot of money.

189
00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:16,760
But they're very secretive about
who they're selling to

190
00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:20,840
and it's no wonder,
they make a very good living
out of selling shark fins.

191
00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:30,160
The growing Chinese influence
along this coast is a real concern.

192
00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:35,560
Mantas are highly prized in
traditional Chinese medicine.

193
00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:42,040
And the financial rewards for
poor fishing communities like this
could be hard to resist.

194
00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:59,960
Throughout the world, in areas where
they are fished, mantas are
listed as vulnerable to extinction.

195
00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:09,560
The only way for Andrea
to give Mozambique's mantas any
long-term protection,

196
00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:13,800
is to get this
remote stretch of coast
recognised as a marine reserve.

197
00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:22,240
These waters are visited
by more whale sharks
than anywhere else in the world,

198
00:20:26,360 --> 00:20:32,080
Whales - from humpbacks to southern
rights are regularly seen here too.

199
00:20:32,080 --> 00:20:34,520
WHALE SONG

200
00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:47,800
But there's a much
rarer creature that comes here,

201
00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:52,560
a creature that's led to Andrea's
most remarkable discovery yet.

202
00:20:55,360 --> 00:20:56,760
Giants.

203
00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:06,360
Up to two metres
larger than the reef mantas,

204
00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:10,920
the Giants usually stay at Tofo
for just few days,

205
00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:15,080
before disappearing back
in to the Indian Ocean,

206
00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:17,120
rarely, if ever, to be seen again.

207
00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:27,000
Until now,
it was thought there was just one
species of manta in the ocean.

208
00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:33,400
But the more Andrea swam with them,
the more she noticed
how different they were.

209
00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:43,320
With a wingspan of up to 7.5 metres,
they were not only
much larger than the reef mantas,

210
00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:46,760
but their markings
were also much more pronounced.

211
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:53,280
All these little
things started adding up.

212
00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:55,160
I just had such a hunch.

213
00:21:55,160 --> 00:22:00,080
I just knew...I just knew in my heart
that there was a difference there.

214
00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:02,800
But she needed proof.

215
00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:08,920
And it came from a strange bump
on the Giant's tail.

216
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:17,080
When I first saw the tail, my
heart was beating so fast, I just...

217
00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:19,200
It's hard to explain.

218
00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:25,000
Mantas evolved from
stingrays millions of years ago,

219
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:29,480
and when they did, it was thought
they'd lost their sting.

220
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:34,040
But while the smaller mantas
had lost theirs,

221
00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:37,000
Andrea found the Giants still
had the remains

222
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:39,920
of a stinging spine
in the bump on their tail.

223
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:47,240
So to see mantas, a group of mantas
that I knew was different, have a
spine still, it was amazing to me.

224
00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:51,480
It was kind of seeing, like,
the missing link in evolution.

225
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:56,080
It was the proof
Andrea had been searching for.

226
00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:04,360
And finally, she was able to
announce to the world that she'd
found a new, giant species of manta.

227
00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:09,280
For the then
unknown field researcher,

228
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:11,920
with little more
than a passion for mantas,

229
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:14,320
it was an astonishing breakthrough.

230
00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:27,920
But where the Giants go after their
brief visit to the Mozambique coast

231
00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:30,960
that remains a mystery.

232
00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:36,240
I have such a hunch that
they are long distance swimmers.

233
00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:38,000
I feel that
they are very migratory.

234
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:43,240
I feel that they might be actually
travelling really long distances.

235
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:47,560
If the Giants ARE ocean travellers,
they're likely to be spending much

236
00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:51,520
of their lives in the heavily
fished waters of the Indian Ocean.

237
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:56,440
With the Giants potentially
at great risk,

238
00:23:56,440 --> 00:24:01,000
for Andrea, the race is on
to find out where they go and why.

239
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:09,800
Following up on all sightings
of Giants

240
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:15,400
Andrea's heading 3,000 miles
across the Indian Ocean
to the Maldive Islands.

241
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:21,360
Here a manta research team
are reporting
occasional sightings of Giants.

242
00:24:21,360 --> 00:24:24,360
As well as huge
gatherings of reef mantas...

243
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:39,360
With more than 1200 coral islands
scattered across 500 miles of water

244
00:24:39,360 --> 00:24:42,840
the Maldives have some of
the richest reefs in the world.

245
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:09,480
Hi! How are you going?
That was absolutely spectacular.

246
00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:13,760
Guy Stevens from the Save Our
Seas Maldivian Manta Ray Project

247
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:16,720
has been studying the
mantas here for four years.

248
00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:22,480
Well, I just got a call from the
guys out there, and there's about
three whale sharks and 100 mantas.

249
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:26,160
Oh, excellent. That's fantastic. OK?
Right, well let's get in the boat.

250
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:31,120
The Baa Atoll is a circular chain
of 60 tiny islands.

251
00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:38,360
A network of coral reefs
snake between them, channelling
the fast-moving currents.

252
00:25:38,360 --> 00:25:39,920
Look Andrea, look! Look at them!

253
00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:42,360
Oh, there's one, there's one!
Right here.

254
00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:43,640
Oh, wow!

255
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:48,800
Look at him, wow there's so many. Wow
there's heaps right there, right now.

256
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:54,360
Here at Hanifaru, the currents sweep
into a horseshoe-shaped lagoon,

257
00:25:54,360 --> 00:25:59,920
creating the perfect conditions
for one of nature's
most extraordinary events.

258
00:25:59,920 --> 00:26:02,360
Wow, that is a massive group.

259
00:26:02,360 --> 00:26:06,560
And you can see right down there.

260
00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:12,160
As many as you can see up here,
it'll be full way down
to the bottom. That is amazing.

261
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:14,720
Can we get in and start snorkelling?
Yep. Let's go.

262
00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:30,880
Nowhere else in the world
do mantas gather together
in such huge numbers.

263
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:42,840
Within minutes more than
100 arrive in the lagoon.

264
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,040
All are reef mantas.

265
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:26,360
The Giants are nowhere to be seen...

266
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:36,720
'I'd never actually been
in a situation like
that with mantas before.

267
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:40,800
'I've never seen
so many in one location.

268
00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:44,040
'I've been diving all over the world
with manta rays

269
00:27:44,040 --> 00:27:46,960
'so it was actually a
really extraordinary experience.'

270
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:56,240
They were just packed one on
top of another - it was madness.

271
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,960
'I was just blown away,
completely blown away.'

272
00:28:11,360 --> 00:28:17,480
Never filmed before, the mantas
only gather on this scale for a
few days each year.

273
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:24,040
And it only happens
during the monsoon.

274
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:28,800
When spring tides cause
strong currents to draw up
nutrients from the depths.

275
00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:37,240
It creates the perfect
conditions for a plankton explosion.

276
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:43,080
And a feast for the mantas.

277
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:56,600
This somersaulting,
called "barrel-rolling",

278
00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:00,080
funnels the plankton into their
mouths in even greater numbers.

279
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:14,360
Then, Andrea
spots some of the mantas

280
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:17,160
skimming across the lagoon floor.

281
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:22,000
Again, it's behaviour
that's never been filmed before...

282
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:26,240
What they're feeding on is unclear.

283
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:30,360
It's likely the plankton, trying to
escape the mantas circling above,

284
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:33,520
have sunk down
and have got trapped on the sea bed.

285
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:43,680
Intriguingly,
the mantas have changed the position
of their front fins,

286
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:48,160
moving them away from their mouths
to get as close
to the seabed as possible.

287
00:29:56,200 --> 00:30:00,920
I think that what all the different
feeding behaviours tell you
is that mantas are thinkers!

288
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:07,800
When the plankton's diffuse
they'll obviously swim through
the water column with the mouth open,

289
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:12,680
but when it's concentrated
they do these barrel rolls, and when
the plankton actually settles on

290
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:17,520
to the ground, then they change
their feeding strategy entirely
and actually feed off the ground.

291
00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:37,600
After more than an hour in the
water, the tide starts to change,
sweeping the plankton bloom away.

292
00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:44,120
As quickly as they came,
the mantas start to disappear.

293
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:55,040
Pretty good, eh?

294
00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,800
Oh, wow. That was sensational.

295
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:01,080
Have a look at all those mantas.

296
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:06,560
That had to have been the
best dive I've ever done in my life.

297
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:08,080
I really do think.

298
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:09,880
I was dancing with them!

299
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:12,400
It was just incredible.

300
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:23,720
I know I didn't see any of the
Giants, down there today. Did you?
No. Not today.

301
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:25,560
And that's not surprising for me.

302
00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:27,440
I expect...

303
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:29,160
When I see one, it's like, wow.

304
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:31,800
It's an event.
It's not like a regular thing.

305
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:35,120
Do you ever see them in this area?
Yeah, I've seen about two here.

306
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:37,600
And they'll be feeding
with the others,

307
00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,480
but they won't ever interact,
yeah, associate.

308
00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:43,560
So if you have a chain
of mantas, you'll never get

309
00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:48,120
the larger species, the Giant
mantas, interacting with the others.

310
00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:53,000
As the light begins to fade,

311
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:56,760
its time to make the one-hour
journey back to Guy's base.

312
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:04,280
But the day's work isn't over yet.

313
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:07,680
You can just about make out
the cluster of spots there.

314
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:11,880
You can see one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven spots there.

315
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:13,800
And then it goes off to a circle.

316
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:18,280
Over the past three years, Guy has
recorded ten Giants in the Maldives.

317
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:24,440
By comparing the spot
patterns of the Maldives and
Mozambique Giants,

318
00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:27,360
they're hoping to find a match.

319
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:32,960
If they find a positive ID,
it will prove the Giants
are travelling large distances.

320
00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:36,320
Is there any way we can
zoom in on that a little bit?

321
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:41,080
But with all the cross-referencing
done by eye, it's a slow process.

322
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:45,480
I can say for sure that
one's not in the population. OK.

323
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:47,720
On to the next one.
On to the next one.

324
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:51,560
Wow, that's very, sort of,
dramatic markings, huh?

325
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:02,360
Dawn on day two of Andrea's trip.

326
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:05,800
And the photo comparison work
is yet to find a match.

327
00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:13,360
But with more than 70 of
Andrea's Giants still to look at,
there's a lot more work to be done.

328
00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:30,840
Out at sea, Andrea and Guy
continue their hunt for
Giants amongst the huge numbers

329
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:34,880
of reef mantas that have gathered,
once again, at the Hanifaru lagoon.

330
00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:41,760
Today, the plankton is higher up
in the water column.

331
00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:47,720
And now, great trains of mantas
start forming just below the waves.

332
00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:01,800
It's amazing
how they move in huge groups
right at the surface. Exactly.

333
00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:06,600
They've learnt exactly
where to be at the right time
for the tide to maximise.

334
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:09,720
Lining up behind each other
in a staggered formation,

335
00:34:09,720 --> 00:34:12,480
the trains travel up and down
the lagoon

336
00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:15,080
scooping up
huge quantities of food.

337
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:26,840
This feeding strategy is a
deliberate and highly effective
way of maximising their catch.

338
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:35,880
As the animal plankton sense the
pressure waves from the approaching
mantas, they try to escape.

339
00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:45,120
But the following mantas, by moving
in such a precise group, leave
the plankton with few places to go.

340
00:34:47,240 --> 00:34:51,400
Sucked into the mantas mouths,
the feast is sieved from the water

341
00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:54,320
by finger-like structures
called gill rakers.

342
00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:02,320
Its thought mantas can harvest more
than 17 kilos of plankton a day.

343
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:15,560
As the mantas begin to disperse,
the world's largest fish arrives.

344
00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:19,360
Growing up to 12 metres long,
the whale shark,

345
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:22,520
like the mantas,
feeds mainly on plankton.

346
00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:41,000
As Andrea's week comes to an end,
there are still no sightings
of any giant mantas.

347
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:44,080
And the photo ID work
also draws a blank.

348
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:49,360
I had an amazing week
here in the Maldives.

349
00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:53,400
I'm so glad that I found
the time to come out here.

350
00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:57,680
This was our first step in trying
to figure out if perhaps the Giants

351
00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:01,920
were making migrations from the
African coastline to the Maldives.

352
00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:04,080
But we didn't get any matches.

353
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:12,040
Andrea will need a radical new
approach is she's ever to find out
where the giant mantas are going.

354
00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:29,080
Back in Mozambique,
Andrea has taken delivery of two
state of the art tracking devices.

355
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:35,480
I took a band off the spear gun
to try and limit the amount of power.

356
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:41,080
Her plan is to attach them to
two Giants to see where they go.

357
00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:46,000
Out on the water
Andrea begins her search,

358
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:49,640
but it's not just the mantas
she has to look out for.

359
00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:55,160
When the water gets murky and you see
a manta swimming by and it has blood
trailing out of it, you always look

360
00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:59,960
over your shoulder and you think
"Jeez, what just did that?",
and is it, you know, after me next.

361
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:13,120
Tiger sharks, bull sharks and
great whites all stalk these reefs.

362
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:23,200
Down at 30 metres
there's no sign of any Giants.

363
00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:32,440
Only the reef mantas are around.

364
00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:37,400
75% bear the scars of
horrific shark bite wounds.

365
00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:59,680
Bites like these come from sharks
of over four metres in length.

366
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:10,640
Quite why they're the victims of
such frequent attacks is a mystery.

367
00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:14,200
There's nowhere else
in the world

368
00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:16,520
where mantas get hunted
on this scale.

369
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:26,720
But Andrea's discovered they
have a special way of surviving
such terrible injuries.

370
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:33,000
Tofo's reefs are a
hotbed of activity.

371
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:42,040
Creatures of all shapes and sizes
come to the cleaning stations

372
00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:46,160
to be picked clean
of parasites and dead skin.

373
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:02,920
Injured mantas are
frequent visitors here, too.

374
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:07,680
Queuing up for
the attention of this tiny fish.

375
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:11,440
The butterflyfish.

376
00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:22,600
Andrea has found they
specialise in bite wounds.

377
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:27,680
Madonna, a female Andrea has
known for more than five years,

378
00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:30,200
has a fresh injury on her flank.

379
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:38,080
By nibbling her wound,
the butterflyfish removes dead
tissue, preventing infection,

380
00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:43,040
making the difference between life
and death for Mozambique's mantas.

381
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:52,840
Butterflyfish aren't the
only specialist cleaners here.

382
00:39:54,480 --> 00:40:00,440
Schools of Sergeant Major Damselfish
concentrate on the area
around Madonna's mouth.

383
00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:09,720
While cleaner wrasse
swim right to the back of her throat
to pick clean her gills.

384
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:26,200
The giants mantas, when they're
around, are frequent visitors
to these cleaning stations, too.

385
00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:32,800
But with no sign of any today,
Andrea will just have to keep

386
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:35,440
returning here
until her luck changes.

387
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:45,840
Back on land there's better news.

388
00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:49,920
The listening station
she setup in November

389
00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:55,240
is starting to reveal more about
the reef mantas secretive lives.

390
00:40:55,240 --> 00:40:59,880
Already from the first
manta we tagged, Tri-Star,
we've gotten some amazing data.

391
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:05,280
Sometimes she spends up to eight
hours on the reef.

392
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:09,560
A lot of the mantas seem to be
spending extraordinary amounts
of time on the reef, cleaning

393
00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:12,480
and that's something you
don't see other places in the world.

394
00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:17,560
Most people are reporting mantas
cleaning for small periods
of time, maybe two hours max,

395
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:21,280
but I think the mantas here
are spending more time
on the cleaning stations

396
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:24,040
because they have
these massive shark bite injuries.

397
00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:35,800
The data has thrown up some
further surprises.

398
00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:41,440
None of the mantas that we tagged
are spending any time at the cleaning
stations during night time hours,

399
00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:46,840
so where they go at night,
whether they go offshore, or down the
coast, remains a complete mystery.

400
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:53,880
Andrea suspects they're moving
out into open-water to feed,

401
00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:58,920
or to avoid the sharks
which are at their most active
as the sun goes down.

402
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:07,040
It's her first glimpse into what
Tofu's mantas are doing at night.

403
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:20,640
Four weeks later,
and Andrea is facing a new problem.

404
00:42:24,480 --> 00:42:30,800
Not only are there still no Giants
around, but now her entire reef
population has disappeared as well.

405
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:43,400
In seven years, Andrea has never
seen anything like it.

406
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:46,320
Ah. That was a pretty rough day.

407
00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:50,400
We've been going out for ages
and we can't seem to find
a single ray in the ocean.

408
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:52,360
I'm getting thoroughly frustrated.

409
00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:58,160
The conditions are fine, It's just,
I don't know where the mantas went,
so I'm pretty frustrated.

410
00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:08,360
It's hard, you know, when the animal
you study doesn't show up
for such a long period of time,

411
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:09,960
you start to worry.

412
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:14,280
And I've heard of other
researchers in the world that have
lost their manta populations

413
00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:18,640
and then that's it, they have
to pack up and move somewhere else,
so it does make you worry,

414
00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:23,480
but we have such a stable
population here, I'm just hoping
that that's not the case.

415
00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:28,360
Andrea
has good reason to be concerned.

416
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:38,800
Worldwide, entire manta populations
are being wiped out.

417
00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:46,200
I think the first time I saw a dead
manta, it was actually in Mozambique

418
00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:49,720
and fishermen pulled it up, it was
actually and individual that I knew.

419
00:43:49,720 --> 00:43:52,360
And, I couldn't control myself.

420
00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:55,120
I was crying.
It was really hard for me.

421
00:43:55,120 --> 00:43:58,720
Worst affected are
mantas in South-East Asia.

422
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:03,200
Their body parts
used in Chinese medicine

423
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:06,800
to treat illnesses
from diabetes to the common cold.

424
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:18,560
And increasingly there are reports
of foreign fishing boats working
Mozambique's 1600-mile coastline.

425
00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:28,160
Four weeks later,

426
00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:30,920
and still no mantas.

427
00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:38,600
An aerial survey is Andrea's
last hope of finding them,

428
00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:43,280
or at least to uncover the
reason for their disappearance.

429
00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:46,480
In the past,
the mantas have vanished,

430
00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:50,520
but only for short periods
when plankton levels have dropped.

431
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:55,080
We've also had instances where a
predator will come through the area,

432
00:44:55,080 --> 00:44:57,200
a great white shark or
a pod of orcas,

433
00:44:57,200 --> 00:45:00,480
and everything will leave -
whale sharks, manta rays,

434
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:03,600
and sometimes they'll leave
the area for up to three weeks.

435
00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:08,880
But even from the air,
Andrea can see nothing to explain
their baffling disappearance.

436
00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:17,640
So far we've seen turtles, humpback
whales but none of the manta rays.

437
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:22,080
They seem to have disappeared
completely from about a 60km area.

438
00:45:25,240 --> 00:45:33,000
With her entire population
of over 650 mantas missing...
it's now a real crisis.

439
00:45:44,720 --> 00:45:48,440
'The thing that really gets to me
is just the waiting.

440
00:45:49,720 --> 00:45:55,280
'I go out to sea, I check,
I am in contact with dive centres
up and down the coastline.

441
00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:59,240
'I'm doing everything in my power
to find my population.

442
00:45:59,520 --> 00:46:02,160
'I just don't know where else
to look at this stage.'

443
00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:14,080
Two weeks later, and a
full eight weeks since she last
laid eyes on a manta,

444
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:17,360
Andrea's luck
looks like it's finally changing.

445
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:23,160
I just got a call from
one of the dive operators
and there's mantas on the reef.

446
00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:28,440
I'm not sure which ones, but they
could be Giants so I've prepped the
boats and we're ready to go out now.

447
00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:40,360
If there ARE Giants around,
it will finally be
Andrea's chance to attach a tag.

448
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:55,640
But in the gloomy depths,
mantas are nowhere to be seen.

449
00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:20,120
Then, Andrea spots
an unmistakable outline.

450
00:47:21,920 --> 00:47:28,280
With its distinct markings,
the first manta to return
to Tofo's reefs is a Giant.

451
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:39,840
Far more wary of humans
than their smaller reef cousins,

452
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:43,200
getting close to a Giant is
not going to be easy.

453
00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:26,840
Something has gone wrong.

454
00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:32,400
The tag has failed to attach.

455
00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:52,240
Not good.

456
00:48:56,760 --> 00:48:58,840
We're going to have that not happen
again.

457
00:49:01,160 --> 00:49:05,160
There haven't been mantas for weeks,
finally we have a great opportunity.

458
00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:10,720
They're back. There are individuals
on the reef that are co-operative.
And now... Just so disappointing.

459
00:49:10,720 --> 00:49:14,760
Really disappointing.
We're going to have to go back to
the drawing board tonight,

460
00:49:14,760 --> 00:49:18,800
to figure out how to get this to work
tomorrow, before these Giants leave.

461
00:49:22,040 --> 00:49:25,760
Andrea decides she can't
risk waiting until tomorrow.

462
00:49:25,760 --> 00:49:29,840
Right, copy that. We'll be
swapping Richie over to this boat...

463
00:49:29,840 --> 00:49:34,960
If her Giants leave the reef
tonight, the chances are she won't
see any more for weeks.

464
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:40,880
With her project
already months behind schedule,
it's a delay she can't afford.

465
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:51,720
Two hours later
they've done all they can

466
00:49:51,720 --> 00:49:54,040
and the improvised tags
are ready to go.

467
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:58,840
Seems like it should be fine.
But nothing's ever fine in science.

468
00:50:00,280 --> 00:50:04,280
But we'll try this thing
to go on now.

469
00:50:18,120 --> 00:50:22,320
30 metres down, the Giant
is still circling the reef.

470
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:51,680
It worked beautifully, I think.

471
00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:52,840
It went in perfect.

472
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:55,960
I didn't see it again, but the tag
looked so good when it moved off.

473
00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:58,440
I think it's in there for good.

474
00:50:58,440 --> 00:51:02,880
I hope it's on it's way to, like,
Bangladesh or something, far away.

475
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:07,400
Oh, it went in and I was
going to cry I was so happy.

476
00:51:07,400 --> 00:51:09,960
What a relief!

477
00:51:13,280 --> 00:51:15,120
It makes it all worth it, you know?

478
00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:19,840
So, first satellite tagged
manta in Africa.

479
00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:22,120
Got to give it a
pretty special name now.

480
00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:24,240
Simon. No, not Simon.

481
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:32,320
Two days later, Andrea
tags her second Giant.

482
00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:40,640
Both mantas are new to her database,
and she names them Cook and Magellan

483
00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:43,720
after the famous oceanic explorers.

484
00:51:48,320 --> 00:51:53,360
The sat-tag will record the manta's
every move for the next 60 days.

485
00:51:54,880 --> 00:51:57,960
Then, if all goes to plan
it will release and transmit

486
00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:01,320
the Giants secrets to
a satellite deep in space...

487
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:13,360
For now,
all Andrea can now do is wait.

488
00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:26,040
Meanwhile, reports come in
of an alarming trend that could be

489
00:52:26,040 --> 00:52:30,680
a real threat to both the Giants
and Tofo's reef mantas.

490
00:52:32,720 --> 00:52:35,520
If you just go in to Google
and type in "manta products"

491
00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:40,320
you come up with several sites
that are selling
fins, the gill rakers, skin...

492
00:52:40,320 --> 00:52:42,840
It's really alarming.

493
00:52:42,840 --> 00:52:47,680
What's so shocking is that with the
click of a button I can actually add

494
00:52:47,680 --> 00:52:51,160
manta products to my purchase bin.
I mean, it's that easy.

495
00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:54,880
These products are coming from India,
they're coming from South-East Asia.

496
00:52:54,880 --> 00:52:58,520
But it's that quick. You can
access them that quick online.

497
00:52:58,520 --> 00:53:02,760
The global online trade
is a serious development.

498
00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:07,720
Andrea's seen for herself
the devastation it can bring.

499
00:53:10,680 --> 00:53:13,680
I was just so sad that these
animals were dead.

500
00:53:13,680 --> 00:53:19,160
I was angry that this is still
allowed to happen in the world today,

501
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:22,640
I'm angry that mantas
aren't protected anywhere,

502
00:53:22,640 --> 00:53:26,880
and I'm frustrated in the fact that
science is often a very slow road.

503
00:53:28,600 --> 00:53:31,240
So, yeah, I do get very emotional.

504
00:53:31,240 --> 00:53:32,760
I won't lie.

505
00:53:37,240 --> 00:53:44,000
Protecting her mantas and finding
out where the Giants are
going couldn't be more critical.

506
00:53:50,520 --> 00:53:57,240
It's June and the satellite data
that could be the key to the
Giants survival, is finally in.

507
00:53:58,760 --> 00:54:02,560
Cook's tag
released early after just 22 days,

508
00:54:04,240 --> 00:54:07,680
but the data it reveals
is fascinating.

509
00:54:10,080 --> 00:54:15,600
It was always thought that
mantas spent most of their
time in shallow waters.

510
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:18,880
But Cook behaved very differently,

511
00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:24,640
staying down between 50 and 150
metres for half of her journey.

512
00:54:24,640 --> 00:54:27,800
Why, remains a mystery.

513
00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:35,520
Magellan's tag stayed
on for the full 60 days.

514
00:54:35,520 --> 00:54:38,040
She made an incredible journey.

515
00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:45,560
Leaving Mozambique,
she entered South African waters

516
00:54:45,560 --> 00:54:49,320
where 90 miles off Durban,
the tag released.

517
00:54:51,600 --> 00:54:58,400
The last data
shows Magellan heading into the cold
waters of the southern Indian Ocean.

518
00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:01,880
It's a journey of over 700 miles...

519
00:55:01,880 --> 00:55:08,400
and the first evidence
that Andrea's Giants are,
as she suspected, ocean wanderers.

520
00:55:11,280 --> 00:55:15,040
Where Magellan was heading
will never be known.

521
00:55:15,040 --> 00:55:19,120
But the significance of
the journey is enormous.

522
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:24,480
It means protecting
Giants like Magellan
will need international cooperation.

523
00:55:33,240 --> 00:55:39,800
As Andrea's year draws to a close
there's a breakthrough
for Tofu's reef mantas, too.

524
00:55:39,800 --> 00:55:42,640
The latest listening station
results are in.

525
00:55:42,640 --> 00:55:47,440
For the first time Andrea now
has tantalising clues

526
00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:50,240
about where
her reef mantas give birth.

527
00:55:51,240 --> 00:55:54,920
Tri-Star was pregnant when tagged.

528
00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:59,960
And then, just as she was about to
pup, she disappeared from the reef.

529
00:56:01,480 --> 00:56:05,160
What's really interesting about
Tri-Star is that she only left

530
00:56:05,160 --> 00:56:11,320
the inshore area for about two weeks,
so she probably didn't go very far.

531
00:56:11,320 --> 00:56:16,400
All of this data
basically suggests to me that they
are giving birth in the vicinity,

532
00:56:16,400 --> 00:56:18,760
just probably somewhere else,

533
00:56:18,760 --> 00:56:24,480
offshore, maybe in a bay or mangrove,
but definitely within the vicinity.

534
00:56:29,040 --> 00:56:34,160
It's the first
evidence that there may be a manta
pupping ground close by,

535
00:56:34,160 --> 00:56:38,960
perhaps even in this estuary
just 15 miles from Andrea's base.

536
00:56:41,400 --> 00:56:44,760
There are no other known
pupping grounds in the world.

537
00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:55,120
With each new discovery,
this remarkable stretch of coast
becomes ever more precious.

538
00:57:00,040 --> 00:57:06,760
Andrea is now in talks with
the Mozambique government
to set up a marine reserve at Tofo.

539
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:14,080
But the future
for her newly discovered Giants
is far more uncertain.

540
00:57:16,080 --> 00:57:19,760
It is terribly frightening that
something as beautiful and important

541
00:57:19,760 --> 00:57:24,080
as a manta ray, could ever be
brought to the brink of extinction.

542
00:57:25,600 --> 00:57:31,000
To have found a new species in
this modern day is remarkable.

543
00:57:33,760 --> 00:57:39,120
To lose them to unregulated
fishing, and to Chinese medicines

544
00:57:39,120 --> 00:57:40,880
would be a tragedy.

545
00:57:45,680 --> 00:57:50,560
I'm not quite sure
what the future holds for them.

546
00:57:50,560 --> 00:57:55,800
I believe that they need
to be protected, and certainly
off the African coastline,

547
00:57:55,800 --> 00:57:58,160
I will not leave
until I see that they are.

548
00:58:43,120 --> 00:58:46,160
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

549
00:58:46,160 --> 00:58:49,200
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk