Surface Breaching Mysteries of Flying Rays Revealed

Flying Rays -Mobula Genus at Baja California Mexico go Airborne. Source Wikipedia. 

Mobula Rays,  AKA: Flying Rays, AKA Devil Rays, AKA Smoothtail Bobula. Range Description: Probably circumglobal in tropical and subtropical waters. Confirmed scattered locations in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. 

IUCN Red List: Near Threatened. Population: Uncommon. Population Trend: Unknown. Age at Maturity: Unknown. Age of Longevity: Unknown. Average Reproductive Age: Unknown. Reproductive Periodicity: Unknown. Annual Rate of Population Increase: Unknown. 

On May 14th BBC reported on the “fabulous flying rays”. “Mobula rays leap spectacularly from the sea when they gather in large groups, but scientists still don’t know why they do it,” the media reported. 

In the past months and years the sightings of massive congregations of Flying Rays -usually off the coast of the Gulf of California Mexico has been increasing. Reports and video footage reveal that the population groups to up to 10 thousand individuals. Videos of Flying Rays go viral as the thousands of Flying Rays navigate full speed and miraculous become airborne and elevate over the waters breaking surface waters up to meters and falling. 

Taking on an Evolutionary discussion Flying Rays as Manta Rays have evolved like no others to “fly” instead of swimming. It is inarguable that water and air share similarities which contribute to evolutionary adaptations.

Despite being spread throughout Australia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, México, Nicaragua, Oman, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa and Thailand little is known about Flying Rays. Not only little is known about Flying Rays but recent studies prove that what was originally believed to be true for the specie is actually not that much so. Flying Rays can not only break surface waters and become airborne but they can go deep into hidden waters. Unlike what most believe the mysteries of Flying Rays are in plain sight. These mysteries can be found in the area known as “surface breaching behaviours” and “ocean layer exchanges”. 

Flying Rays which belong to the Mobula genus are among the few ocean creatures which can break surface and throw their entire body out of the water. Some species of Manta Rays -very similar to Flying Mobula Rays also breach surface. 

Surface breaching is a group of behaviours mostly associated to Cetaceans -Whales and Dolphins. 

Why do Flying Rays go airborne and break surface? Why do they fly? No one really knows. Many have theories and some believe they do it because they can. Ocean mixology,  ecology and energy, social and communication scientific studies singal to more specific answers. 

BBC Discovery coproduction television series managed to take impressive footage of thousands of flying rays as they moved through the waters of Gulf of California in Mexico in 2015. 

“Everywhere you look mobulas are leaping out of the water and landing with a loud smack, sometimes just a couple of meters from you,” Joshua Stewart of the Gulf of California Marine Program at Scripps Institution of Oceanography told BBC. 

“The mobulas launch themselves straight up out of the water at top speed, and most often they land flat on their belly. However, sometimes they seem to lose control and do flips and twists before reconnecting with the water,” the expert added. 

Beyond viral images spread throughout the web and video footage of the massive congregations which raise questions on population trends there is very little information out there on Flying Rays. A simple search for Mobula Flying Rays scientific papers reveals the need and urgency to study the organisms specially considering that they group in such large numbers and that they have the ability to break surface waters. 

Other creatures of the ocean which take on similar behaviours, grouping and travelling in numbers and breaching surface waters have proven to be key in the ecological balance of the oceans and their healths. 

Flying Rays feed like other surface breachers on tiny copepods such as Nyctiphanes and 

Mysidium. Despite original beliefs that Flying Rays are found in shallow waters or living in surface layers of the ocean they have infact been proven -by scientific studies to take on deep dives. Curious fact indeed considering that Whales which also feed on copèpods and also break surface waters take on deep dives as well. It seems that Flying Rays share many things in common with Cetaceans and therefore it is logical to infer that they contribute to the health of the ocean in similar ways. 

The contribution of Whales and their ability to carry and spread nutrients -both horizontally through navigation and migration, as well as vertically through surface and deep ocean layer stirrup has been studied and proven and is known is some circles as the “Ocean Mixology”. 

A paper published mid 2014 by Nature Communications titled “Extreme Diving Behaviour in Devil Rays links Surface Waters and the Deep Ocean,” studied flying rays and assures that they are capable of deep diving. The paper even registered a wide range of dive profiles for monitored and tagged rays. 

“Ecological connections between surface waters and the deep ocean remain poorly studied despite the high biomass of fishes and squids residing at depths beyond the euphotic zone. These animals likely support pelagic food webs containing a suite of predators that include commercially important fishes and marine mammals. ,” the paper hints the values of species. 

The study used transmitting tags on 15 Chilean devil rays -Mobula tarapacana  in the Central North Atlantic Ocean. The result translated to  movement patterns of individuals for up to 9 months. 

“Devil rays were considered surface dwellers but our data reveal individuals descending at speeds up to 6.0 meters per second to depths of almost 2,000 meters and water temperatures with temperatures below 4°C,” the paper states. 

“The shape of the dive profiles suggests that the rays are foraging at these depths in deep scattering layers,” another similarity Rays have with Whales.  

Ocean Mixologists believe that animal movement is key to the sea life. Such as Whales have been determined to act as pumps and conveyor belts, Flying Rays are also providing ecological services. The airborne show, jumps and splash which attract our attention is actually contributing to ocean elements movement.

Flying Rays have always attracted the attention due to their ability to fly or jump off the waters. The mysteries still remains although the jump is most likely linked to energy display, communication, travel signals, feeding signals, courting and reproduction, social hierarchy, spying behaviour,

While cetaceans breach surface to breath and Flying Rays do not they both take on similar techniques to breach the waters. Two techniques are used to breach. The first method, most common in sperm and humpback whales is conducted by swimming vertically upwards from depth and heading straight out of the water. The other more common method is to travel close to the surface and parallel to it and then jerk upwards at full speed. A breach is when the full body emerges out of the water while a “cresting” is when only 40% of the body emerges. Whale breaching behaviour has been tied to communication, feeding, spying and social activities. 

Flying Rays also “surface-run” taking on high speed surface behaviour in which jumps out of the water are alternated with speed surface swimming. When navigating in large groups and viewed from aerial perspective the idea of how the massive group of Flying Rays stays together seems to come alive with airborne activity especially notorious in the edges of the navigating congregation.

Breaching waters requires massive amounts of energy it therefore believed that Flying Rays breach surface waters and go airborne through an energy outburst, an expression of strength and health, a solid unique demonstration of power.