Raja Ampat Manta Project

24/02/2026

New paper published!

Most people see manta rays as these effortless, gliding giants on the surface. What we don’t see is what happens beneath.

When we attach satellite archival tags to manta rays, they record depth and temperature every few seconds - generating millions of data points per individual. Hidden in that data are patterns of behaviour: foraging, travelling, deep diving, recovery.

The challenge isn’t collecting data anymore.
It’s making sense of it.

I’ve just published a new methods paper introducing FishDiveR - an analytical tool designed to turn high-resolution dive time-series into quantitative behavioural classifications.

In simple terms:
It helps convert “up and down dive plots” into structured, comparable behavioural information using signal processing and multivariate analysis.

Why that matters:
Better behavioural classification → clearer understanding of habitat use → stronger spatial protection decisions → more effective conservation.

This paper doesn’t come with dramatic headlines. It’s not a “record-breaking dive” story.

If you’d like to read it: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40462-025-00622-w

Thank you to everyone who’s supported the work so far - from divers and expedition guests to collaborators and donors.

The ocean still has many secrets. We’re just getting better at listening to it.

Biologging devices have revolutionised our understanding of aquatic animal movement by enabling the collection of detailed depth and temperature time-serie

19/12/2025

🌊 Big news – Chagos, here we come! 🌊

I’m incredibly excited to be heading to the Chagos Archipelago for an upcoming research expedition focused on devil rays (Mobula spp.) alongside some manta ray spotting in one of the most remote and pristine marine regions on the planet.

Chagos sits in the heart of the Indian Ocean and is often described as one of the last near-pristine tropical marine ecosystems left on Earth. Its reefs have experienced minimal direct human pressure, making it an extraordinary natural laboratory for understanding how large pelagic species behave in relatively intact systems.

A few reasons Chagos is so special:
• It contains the largest fully protected marine reserve in the world.
• Its reefs show some of the highest coral cover and fish biomass recorded globally.
• The surrounding deep ocean drops away rapidly, creating ideal habitat for oceanic rays, sharks, and other wide-ranging megafauna.
• It supports globally important populations of mantas, devil rays, sharks, turtles, and seabirds, many of which remain poorly studied here.

Studying devil rays and mantas in a place like Chagos offers a rare opportunity to explore movement, diving behaviour, and habitat use in a system that is far closer to an ecological baseline than most modern oceans.

Feeling very grateful for the chance to work in such a remarkable place — and excited for what we might learn beneath the surface. More updates soon.

🦋🦈🌍