CHAPTER 



8 



THE MANTA, THE GOOD DEVIL 

 OF THE RED SEA 



CERTAIN fishj as we have seen, have without justification 

 acquired a terrible reputation. And the most terrible 

 reputation has, with the least justification, been acquired by 

 the manta. The manta has been the subject of more ballyhoo 

 than any other fish; there are even film shots (oh, those 

 films !) of a manta charging a man like a bull. The manta has, 

 in short, been styled the Devil of the Seas. 



The manta (Spanish — mantle, from the shape of the fish) 

 is a selachian that feeds on plankton and small fish, and has 

 in consequence minute, innocuous teeth. The 'horns' at the 

 side of its mouth are not used for attacking but rather as 

 spatula, to spoon into the banks of plankton. Cecco, Gigi and 

 I fully observed this operation. The cephalic lobes (a more 

 accurate and unassuming name than 'horns') collect the 

 nutriment with a regular movement and push it into the open 

 fauces. Plankton is thick near the surface and that is why the 

 manta often floats up from below, in contrast with other rays 

 and stingrays of similar anatomical structure. Even when it 

 is harpooned the manta does not attack and certainly never 

 'charges' man. It nearly always swims off' and evidently does 

 not consider man worth a second glance. A manta might be 

 dangerous only if it were of large dimensions and were 



