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

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.