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Shark and Company 



Almost immediately after being struck by the harpoon, the Manta made the 

 side wise revolution alongside the boat, and just before the tail had reached the 

 perpendicular, an embryo was violently ejected to a distance of about four feet. 

 The embryo appeared tail first, folded in cylindrical form, but it instantly 

 unfolded and its pectorals, moving in bird manner, retarded its descent until 

 the mother fish had disappeared beneath the surface. I was almost in the act of 

 securing the embryo when it was swept below by a pectoral of the large male 

 mate which was near the big female. 



Mantas of the genus Mobiila are divided generally into four species, 

 distinguished by their possession or lack of a tail sting. M. hypostoma 

 does not have one. The less common Atlantic species {Mobula mobular 

 Bonnaterre, 1788) has one; it is found chiefly in the Mediterranean, and 

 in the eastern Atlantic from Ireland to Spain, Portugal, the Azores, the 

 Canaries, and tropical West Africa. Such a difference is also found in the 

 two Pacific-Indian Ocean species: M. japanica, which has a tail spine, 

 and M. diabola, which does not have one. 



M. diabola (called the Ox ray. Smaller Devil ray, and Diamond fish 

 in Australia) is the midget of the Mobulidae family, growing to only 

 about 2 feet in width. 



A Giant De\il ray (Manta birostris) is walked around a tank at the Miami Seaquarium 

 to acclimate it to captive life. This young Manta, as it is also called, weighs 1,000 

 pounds. Its two common names stem from its physical characteristics. Manta, Spanish 

 for "cloak," describes the ray's broad body. Devil comes from the horn-like cephalic 

 fins, which form a funnel to channel food into its maw as it swims along the surface. 



Courtesy, Miami Seaquarium 



