 When I was a child, I was in love with the ocean. Okay, to be fair, I was obsessed maybe with the ocean. All of the different faces of the ocean, all the different animals, the colors, the textures, the sizes, they just, they absolutely fascinated me. That tiny little biologist inside of me wanted to talk with each and every one of them. I wanted to meet them all. I wanted to ask them where they came from, where they lived, why they look the way that they do. And I couldn't wait to get underwater. I wanted to meet everything from the smallest, most unassuming little creatures to the largest fish in the sea. When I finally did actually take the plunge, I was 12. And of all of the animals I met, when I was in those early years, it was the manta ray that left the biggest impression on me. It was absolutely gobsmacking. The first time I saw it, it was the most beautiful, most majestic animal I had ever seen on a land or in the water. And I wanted to know more. It was love at first sight. And unfortunately, I didn't know then that 15 years later I would describe a new species of manta. I would be devoting my life to protecting this animal. But that passion was there just from the beginning. Now, mantas are cartilaginous fish, like all other sharks and rays. And they actually are the kings of the rays. They get up to eight meters disc width, which is pretty big. I'm sure that you can imagine. Here's a photo of me taking a genetic sample of a female in Ecuador. They dwarf you when you swim next to them, I have to admit. But there's things about them that are more impressive than even their size. Mantas are one of the only pelagic rays in the ocean, meaning they swim all of the time. They never stop. They never sleep. Imagine that. We estimate that they live between 40 and 50 years, constantly moving, constantly. They have the largest brain of any fish relative to body size. A lot of people don't know that. It makes them really curious. One of the things that we notice is they seek out diver's attention. They swim through our bubbles. They engage us with what could only be described as play behavior. It is an awesome experience to have an encounter with one underwater awesome. I suggest it, all of you guys. They are planktivorous, so they're not dangerous. They feed on zooplankton suspended in the water column. And they feed day and night. They have to feed a lot because they feed on the smallest organisms in the ocean. Now, sometimes we see them in large schools, hundreds of them feeding cooperatively in these massive chains. And other times we see mantas going at it alone just by themselves swimming around in the open ocean. What we do know is that they're driven by the need to feed, but I wanted to know more. And they're such an elusive animal. And I can't just go up and speak to them. They're difficult to study. So what we decided to do is look at their distribution around the world and put a new technology on them, satellite tags on them. So we picked different spots across the globe in all three of the world's major oceans and we started slapping these satellite tags on them to find out where these animals went, what they got up to. And it's very expensive technology, but it opened the doors for us. It enabled us to see where they go, what they get up to every minute of every day. This tag captures information about the surrounding water that the mantas swimming through every 10 seconds. So we deploy them for sometimes four to six months. So we get this really up close and personal view of what the mantas are doing, where they live, how they feed, how they interact with one another. It's actually quite extraordinary. And every single one of these tags has delivered clues to how we can better protect them, how I can better see that the future generations will be able to have these encounters like I've had with them. And we now know that these animals make huge migrations across the oceans. They travel thousands of kilometers in any direction, making these massive cyclical journeys. We know that they travel up and down continental coastlines. We know that they cross international borders. They navigate into the high seas, really hostile conditions. They're actually an incredible ray. And one of the most interesting things is we thought they lived at the surface. We thought these were surface dwelling animals, but they're not. One of the coolest things we've learned about mantas is yes, they use these huge horizontal planes in the ocean, but they are also, as we've found out, some of the deepest diving fish in the world. They penetrate into the deep waters of the ocean up to an exceeding a kilometer from the surface. Incredible stuff. The more we learn about mantas, the more they fascinate us. Unfortunately, the more we learn about mantas, the more we realize that they're in trouble. Now, what are they in trouble from? Us, unfortunately. It's anthropogenic threats, again, that will be their demise if we don't act soon. Things like artisional fishing and developing countries, things like directed trade fishing and others. Manta populations across the globe are plummeting because people are now targeting them in huge numbers, extracting out all of their body parts to use in bogus Chinese medicinal products. Yes, just like our rhinos here in Africa. And as a result of some of this heinous behavior, unsustainable behavior, we've had to elevate the status, the conservation status of manta rays, both species late last year on the IUCN Red List to vulnerable to extinction. This is an animal we may not see anymore if we don't do something. And they deserve such a listing, very conservative life histories. The females only have one baby every two to three years. And that baby is very small and defenseless and may not even make maturity. So the take-home message here is these are not animals that can withstand human predation. They can't defend themselves from us or bounce back from our pressures. So I want to end with a positive note, which is that there is a ray of hope. These are charismatic species. People identify with them, divers the world, over love them. They could be considered easily the panda of the ocean. And we have proven that they are a lucrative draw card for tourism. They can be used sustainably. And we really need to learn from this animal. And I always say the plight of the manta ray should be looked at as a warning beacon to all of those people who still want to extract every last species of megafauna out of our oceans. We need to remember that the world would be a far, far lesser place without iconic marine species like these. So let's do something about it.