In 2023, a team of scientists from the Manta Trust set out to uncover the hidden lives of manta rays by attaching Crittercams—small video cameras with depth and temperature sensors—to individual manta rays in the Maldives and Mexico. Their work, funded by the National Geographic Society, was then published as “Insight into manta ray behaviour using animal-borne Crittercams” (Pelletier et al. 2023). The project offered a rare, first-person view of how these gentle giants behave beneath the surface. The footage revealed differences between the two species, but one of the most remarkable discoveries was the deepest manta ray courtship ever recorded, filmed at a depth of 60 metres.

To help communicate these findings, my artwork of the oceanic manta ray was used in the infographic that accompanied the paper. You can learn more about the research here and excess the full paper here.