A research team from University\u00a0of Guam Sea Grant, the Micronesian Conservation\u00a0Coalition, Conservation International, Manta Trust, and the Department of Agriculture has started a manta ray tagging project in hopes of collecting data on\u00a0the\u00a0movements,\u00a0habitats,\u00a0and social patterns of the\u00a0local manta ray population.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recently had the first\u00a0cross-island\u00a0migration of a manta ray in the region,\u201d\u00a0said lead researcher Julie Hartup of the Micronesian Conservation\u00a0Coalition.\u00a0\u201cIt is really exciting to be able to track more of that kind of movement.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Researchers will be attaching\u00a0digital\u00a0tracking tags to manta rays over the course of July. The public is encouraged to be respectful of known manta sites during this time and to stay distanced from any manta rays that may be tagged.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople may think that the tags are fishing line or something else, but they are very important to the research we are\u00a0doing,\u00a0and we ask that community members please refrain from touching them,\u201d Hartup said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The tags will be removed from the manta rays at the conclusion of the study.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This research project\u00a0is funded in part by UOG Sea Grant.\u00a0UOG Sea Grant is one of 34 programs within the National Sea Grant College Program\u2014a partnership among universities and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that seeks to enhance the practical use and conservation of coastal and marine resources to create a sustainable economy and environment.\u00a0(PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A research team from University\u00a0of Guam Sea Grant, the Micronesian Conservation\u00a0Coalition, Conservation International, Manta Trust,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":331088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-347528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}