“Underwater Flight: Protecting the Mantas of Sri Lanka” Manta Trust’s Daniel Fernando to speak at Aquarium, July 17

WHO: Daniel
Fernando, Manta Trust’s Project Leader in Sri Lanka and India, is a marine
biologist and native Sri Lankan who fell in love with manta rays when he
learned to scuba dive in the Maldives. In 2010, he met Manta Trust’s Founder
and CEO Guy Stevens who encouraged Fernando to get involved in manta research
and conservation of the animals that were being significantly affected by
fishing in Sri Lanka. Fernando earned his undergraduate degree in biomedical
science in Germany, a master’s degree in marine resources management from the
National Oceanography Centre in UK, and then returned to Sri Lanka to put his
expertise to work to save the beautiful but threatened manta rays. Much of his
work has been featured in documentaries, and in March 2013, he was instrumental
in helping to garner stronger protections for manta rays under the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

WHAT: In his
lecture, “Underwater Flight: Protecting the Mantas of Sri Lanka,” Fernando will
discuss the grace and beauty of manta rays which have captivated divers for
years. As the largest of the ray species with their remarkable 20-foot wingtip
span and weighing up to two tons, manta rays are thought to have the biggest
brains of all fish in the ocean. But they are threatened.

Researchers estimate that
100,000 rays are netted each year mostly in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and India for
a lucrative and high demand traditional Chinese medical treatment thought to
cleanse human blood of toxins. According to Al Jazeera, the manta ray’s gill
rakers or plates which help them strain plankton from ocean waters have become
a $11.3 million a year commodity, fetching three times the value of shark fins.

The New England Aquarium’s
Marine Conservation Action Fund is supporting the work of Manta Trust, a
UK-based nonprofit organization, as it strives to protect endangered manta rays
in Sri Lanka. Fernando will discuss how they used the funds to document
overfishing in India. Started in 1999, MCAF has supported more than 100 small
scale, high impact conservation projects in 36 countries with more than $600,000
to protect vulnerable species and habitats. In part, the funding to Manta Trust
helped achieve stronger international protection for manta rays earlier this
year.

WHEN:
Wednesday, July 17 at 7 p.m. (Lectures are free and open to the public, thanks
to funding by the Lowell Institute. To register, go to www.neaq.org/AquariumLectures.)