Lecture 3_Part 5 - Disturbance at Cleaning Stations

7/27/2019 Lecture 3_Part 5 - Disturbance at Cleaning Stations

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Tourism and Manta raysPart 5: Disturbance of cleaning stations from

tourism activities

By Dr. Anne-Marie Kitchen Wheeler Project Founder

Manta Ecology Project



In North Male the majority

of cleaning stations arenearby resorts.

The most important site

was Lankan, located next toParadise resort but recently,

sightings of mantas have

been very infrequent.

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ExamplesThere is the precedent that construction of the lagoonentrance to Paradise island in 1995 required dynamitinginner lagoon reef and that mantas avoided Lankan until2003. i.e. resort development upset manta activity locally. Themantas have disappeared again, so could some change at theresort have caused the change or is it merely due to too manydivers at Lankan?

Specific sites still have cleaners but no mantas e.g. Ukulhas,Dhonkalo and Prisca have been very active manta cleaningstations in the past but mantas are now rarely seen theredespite few divers now visiting these sites.

Observations of the cleaning station at Lankan suggest thatthe cleaning fish are there when the mantas are present andabsent (or present in much smaller numbers) when themantas are not visiting. This observation was unexpected.

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Divers: positive or negative effect?

It has been suggested that the

presence of divers attracts

manta rays at some cleaning

stations.

They seek out exhaled bubbles

and swim through them as if

enjoying a jacuzzi.

There is no evidence of a

detrimental effect of bubbles at

either cleaning or feeding

locations.

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Divers standing or kneeling on the reef will of course have a

detrimental effect, damaging the reef and spoiling the habitat

of the cleaner fish!

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20

15

10

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D a t a

Madivaru is a very regularly dived manta cleaning station in South Ari Atoll. Many divers and

guides have told me that it is “not as good as it used to be”. As a simple test I investigated my

own reports of the numbers of mantas seen during my own visits over the past 11 years and

there appears to be no significant decrease in the number of mantas I have encountered.

This is NOT the case at Lankan where sightings dropped to zero throughout the majority of

surveys during the SW monsoons in 2012 and 2013.

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Coral rubble tipped on

reef slope obliterating

growing coral.

Pilings built onto coral

crown on reef edge

severely damaging

fringing reef.

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So what is going on?

We are getting mixed messages!

Mantas are missing from regular sites but continue

to visit other equally heavily visited sites.There are sites where the cleaner fish are abundantyet the mantas are not seen.

These are complicated, multi-faceted issues withso many potential influences we will probablynever get an objective answer.

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There are so many possible influences that it is

impossible to measure them all but there are some

common-sense actions that should be taken

Protect the reefs:

Measure what we have:

• Educate divers about how to dive to

protect the reef

• Environmental impact surveys pre,

during and post development.

Developers should act responsibly

• Get more divers involved in our ID

project so we know how manymantas we have, where they go etc.

• The reefs need to be surveyed for

condition of coral, fish numbers etc.

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References

• Anderson RC, Adam MS, Kitchen-Wheeler A, Stevens G (2010) Extent and economic value of mantaray watching in the Maldives. Tourism in Marine Environments 7: 15-27

• Bshary R, Côté IM (2008) New perspectives on marine cleaning mutualism. In: Magnhagen C,Braithwaite VA, Forsgren E, Kappor BG (eds) Fish behaviour. Science Publishers, Enfield (NH), pp563 –592.

• Feder HM (1966) Cleaning symbiosis in the marine environment. In: Henery M (ed) Symbiosis.Academic Press, New York, pp 327-390

•

Gooding RM (1964) Observations of fish from a floating observation raft at sea. Proc Hawaiian AcadSci 39: 27

• Grutter AS (1995) Relationship between cleaning rates and ectoparasite loads in coral reef fishes.Marine Ecology Progress Series 118: 51-58

• Kitchen-Wheeler A-M, Edwards AJ (In review) How often do manta rays visit cleaning stations in theMaldives? Environmental Biology of Fishes

• Kitchen-Wheeler A-M (2013) The behaviour and ecology of Alfred mantas (Manta alfredi ) in theMaldives. PhD Thesis, Newcastle University, UK

•Losey GS (1972) The ecological importance of cleaning symbiosis. Copeia 1972: 820-833

• Youngbluth MJ (1968) Aspects of the ecology and ethology of the cleaning fish Labroides phthirophagus Randall. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 25: 915-932

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Thank you for your attentioncontact details: [email protected]

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Lecture 3_Part 5 - Disturbance at Cleaning Stations