5 I o Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



it had been harpooned until it was struck with a second iron.i" It has even been 

 reported that a shoal of Mantas entangled themselves in this way among the posts of 

 a fence running out into the water."* Accounts of their towing boats which they have 

 fouled in this way doubtless have some foundation, though probably exaggerated. 



Mantas are sometimes encountered offshore over deep water, as in the Caribbean, 

 in the Gulf Stream off Cuba, in the Gulf of Mexico, and around Bermuda. But they are 

 seen more often in shoal water within a few miles of land. For example, schools of them 

 have been reported along the borders of muddy water where the Mississippi flows into 

 the Gulf of Mexico. They are often seen along the Southwest Florida Coast, and they 

 were described many years ago as entering shallow inlets on the South Carolina Coast 

 at high tide, returning to the sea again on the ebb. 



Presumably Mantas are year-round residents in the tropical part of their range and 

 northward to southern Florida. However, northward from Florida, on the Atlantic Coast 

 of the United States, they are known only as warm-season visitors, having been reported 

 in South Carolina waters in May, June, July, and August ;i^' off North Carolina in July; 

 off Delaware Bay and New Jersey in late August and early September; and off Block 

 Island and on Georges Bank in August. A pair has been seen in the act of mating, but 

 the details of the event were not observed. i*^" 



They are often accompanied by remoras {Echeneis, Remora) that cling to the ante- 

 rior parts of their pectorals or inside their mouths. 



Numerical Abundance. Perhaps Mantas are as numerous in the Gulf of Mexico off 

 the mouth of the Mississippi and in the shallow waters along southwestern Florida as 

 they are anywhere in the Atlantic. But no record seems to have been kept of the numbers 

 sighted there or elsewhere over any considerable period. In estimating their abundance 

 from published reports, one must bear in mind that characterizations of so large an 

 animal as "common" or "abundant" may rest on only a few individuals. Thus, a recent 

 statement that they "abound" in Beaufort Harbor, North Carolina, appears to have 

 been based on the harpooning of i6 there in the summer of 1843."^ 



Relation to Man. Mantas, if not too large, are sometimes exposed for sale in tropical 

 American ports. ^^^ The liver also yields oil and the skin has been used as an abrasive. 

 They are (or have been) harpooned for shark bait in the Gulf of California."^ But they 

 are not taken in large enough numbers to be of any commercial importance anywhere. 



They are harpooned from time to time by sport fishermen."* They put up a pro- 

 longed resistance, sometimes towing the boat for several hours before they are exhausted 



157. Vaillant and Diguet (Bull. Mus. Hist. nat. Paris, 4, 1898: 127). A more recent instance is the capture of the 21-foot 

 New Jersey specimen (mentioned on p. 502) after it had entangled itself with the anchor and anchor rope of a fishing 

 boat lying five miles offshore. 



158. Elliott, Carolina Sports, 1846: 16. 



159. Knowledge of the occurrence of Mantas along South Carolina is due chiefly to Elliott's accounts (Carolina Sports, 

 1846, 1859) of his experiences with them in the region of Port Royal Sound more than a century ago. 



160. Elliott, Carolina Sports, 1859: 93-94. 161. Gudger, Science, N. S. 5^, 1922: 339. 



162. Beebe and Tee-Van (Zoologica N. Y., 10, 1928: 32) saw one six feet wide in the market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 



163. Vaillant and Diguet, Bull. Mus. Hist. nat. Paris, 4, 1898: 128. 



164. Many accounts of Devil-fishing have appeared; see especially Elliott (Carolina Sports, 1846: 68-72); Holder (Big 

 Game at Sea, 1908: chap, i); and La Gorce (Nat. geogr. Mag., 35, 1919: 483-488). 



