Last month, Indonesia established the world’s largest sanctuary for manta rays
Photos: A Sanctuary for Enormous, Majestic Manta Rays
Last month, Indonesia established the world’s largest sanctuary for manta rays — those enormous, finned fortresses that can reach nearly 30 feet across. For the first time, manta ray hunting and export is banned within the entire 2.3 million square miles of Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone.
The sanctuary is a victory for conservationists and the manta rays, as Indonesia was home to some of the largest ray fisheries in the world.
But the decree may not have been motivated solely by the plight of the rays, whose populations are dwindling in the archipelago. As ever, money talks. A study published last May in PLoS ONE calculated the measure of a manta and concluded the immense rays are worth much more alive than dead. For starters, the study reports that Indonesia earns an estimated $15 million in manta ray tourist revenues annually — compared to the ray fisheries, worth about $500,000. And, it concluded, a living manta ray is worth almost $2 million in tourism revenues over the course of its roughly 25-year lifetime (this estimate was based on the island of Yap, which has one of the best known manta ray tourism spots and a stable population of 100 rays).
Though shaped like B-2 stealth bombers with mouths large enough to swallow a human, manta rays are gentle and social animals. Their tendency to feed near the ocean’s surface and interact with humans makes swimming with them a sought-after experience.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/02/indonesia-manta-ray-sanctuary/?cid=co19116234#slide-id-554651
= new reply since forum marked as read
A very popular critter on DU. 
Maybe more popular than narwhals.
http://election.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x265137
http://election.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x249733
Oh, and let's not forget mobulas:
http://www.malbertphoto.com/mobulas1.html
