![]() Jessica enjoys scuba diving, underwater photography, bird watching, hiking, reading and running. Since the inception of FMP, she has described south Florida as a potential nursery habitat for young manta rays and documented a high frequency of anthropogenic impacts (fishing gear entanglement, vessel strikes) on these mantas. She first saw manta rays in Florida while working on sea turtle nesting beaches, and was surprised to learn that manta rays there were unstudied. In 2016, she started the Florida Manta Project (FMP) with MMF. She has lived and worked around the world as a biologist, including studying sea turtles in Costa Rica and Ghana, diving in Honduras and even as a professor of marine biology on a sailboat while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. These experiences stoked her desire to travel, conduct field work and conserve the natural world. While at UNC-Chapel Hill she majored in Environmental Science, and studied abroad in Mexico and Kenya. Payne said they wanted to host this event because the FGCU Wildlife Club has a duty to bring awareness to animal issues in our South Florida community.Originally from eastern North Carolina, Jessica has always had a love of animals and the outdoors. First nursery with more than 55 juvenile manta rays is discovered in South Florida but they face fight for survival amid overfishing, boat traffic and toxic sewage Scientists identified 59 giant. Payne said Pate’s work is very interesting and it’s important to South Florida because it is research that hasn’t been done before in our Florida waters. However, sightings in Florida waters are uncommon. Mantas are found in the temperate, tropical, and sub tropical waters world wide. Recently, an endangered species petition. The most commonplace to see these elegant swimmers are around coral reefs where smaller fish clean parasites collected on the rays from open waters. They can occasionally be seen here in Florida. Sydney Payne, the president of the FGCU Wildlife Club, said, “Our goal is to educate and help enhance the student experience of the wildlife on campus and off campus.” In the first few weeks of July we have started receiving reports of several Manta ray sightings at French Reef, near Key Largo, Florida. The Giant Manta Ray (Manta birostris) is the largest of several species of manta rays throughout the world. She said, “I think all animals have an innate right to be here whether we say so or not,” Pate said, “They’re these smart creatures with complex social lives that we don’t even understand.” Experience the full force and power of riding the high seas, all on one of the smoothest tracks in the world. Riders are taunted by a head-first, face-down inverted nosedive and thats just the beginning. Pate said there is a lot of space in manta research yet to be filled. Find out what it’s like to spin, glide, skim and fly like a giant ray when you experience the only flying roller coaster of its kind in Florida. ![]() “Instead of just watching it,” Pate said, ”take a photo, report it as a citizen scientist, and reel in their lines,” Pate said that anglers that she’s asked can generally identify a manta when they see one in the water, but they don’t always know how to take the necessary cautions to protect mantas. The biggest threat to manta rays around the world is fishing,” Pate said. Manta rays face many different threats including: line entanglement, vessel strikes, climate change, coastal development, and particularly microplastics. “Just last year the giant manta was uplisted to endangered, which means they are facing an even higher risk of extinction,” Pate said. Along the Atlantic coast of Florida, manta rays are occasionally ob. Pate said that research on the nursery is ongoing. inshore waters of the Indian River Lagoon system, FL, and Port Canaveral, FL. Pate said this opens up new opportunities for manta rays to be studied and hopefully leads to better protection for the species. This new nursery could be good news for manta rays and the scientists studying them. Manta rays are a vulnerable species, said Pate. It is also interesting because the breeding ground is just offshore from a highly developed area and tourist-packed beaches. Pate shares that this is unusual because there are only a few known regions where manta rays go to reproduce, and Florida shores were not one known to be one of these locations. Pate said that a previously undiscovered manta ray nursery may have been found along the coast of South Florida, particularly off the coast of West Palm Beach. In February 2022, marine biologist and research scientist, Jessica Pate, the founder of The Florida Manta Project, visited FGCU to educate students on Florida’s manta rays. A marine biologist is educating FGCU students about the importance of a recently discovered possible manta ray breeding ground.
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