Manta ray data collaboration
I’m looking to work with researchers and organisations holding tag data worth comparing with manta rays, to compare vertical behaviour across individuals, sites and species.
Why pool data
Most tagging studies involve a handful of animals at a single site. Individually, those datasets describe local behaviour. Combined, they could show which vertical movement patterns mantas share with other species and populations, which are unique to them, and how behaviour relates to environment and season.
FishDiveR supports this. Behaviour features are extracted from each tag separately and can then be pooled for joint clustering, so datasets recorded at different sites and sampling intervals can be compared on a common basis. The methods paper includes an oceanic manta ray record from Indonesia.
Data I’m interested in
- Depth time-series from oceanic manta rays (Mobula birostris), reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) and Atlantic manta rays (Mobula yarae).
- Depth data from other species worth comparing with mantas, for example other mobulid rays, whale sharks and other large planktivores, and pelagic sharks and fishes.
- Recovered archival records are ideal. Other tag data are worth discussing.
- Any location, any deployment length.
How collaboration works
- Terms are agreed in writing before any data are shared, including how the data will be used and who can see them.
- You keep ownership of your data.
- Contributors are credited, with co-authorship on resulting publications agreed in advance.
- You receive the analysis of your own data as part of the collaboration.
Get in touch
Email me with the species, location, tag type and roughly how many deployments you hold.