MOTOBUCHO, Okinawa (18 June 2007) -- Aquarium officials in Okinawa have announced the first birth of a baby manta in captivity. The female giant manta ray was born late Saturday at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, which started raising manta rays in 1988. The birth was recorded on video by the aquarium and broadcast to a national audience by NHK on Sunday. The extraordinary video images show the baby manta sliding out of its mother rolled up like a tube, then spreading its fins nearly two meters from tip to tip and swimming around the huge aquarium tank. ''I've never heard of any other case before,'' said Noriyasu Suzuki of Izu-Mito Sea Paradise aqua zoo. ''Aquariums that raise manta rays are rare to begin with ... because they get so big.'' Aquarium officials said the mother manta, which was taken to the aquarium in 1998 after fishermen caught it in a net, mated on June 8, 2006, exactly 374 days prior to the birth. ''We unfolded some of the mysteries about the life of manta rays, including the length of their pregnancy,'' aquarium official Minoru Toda said. ''Now we have to make sure the baby grows in good health.'' © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK | | A baby giant manta ray swims inside a huge fish tank at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Motobucho, Okinawa Prefecture (State), southwestern Japan, Saturday, June 16, 2007. The female manta was born earlier in the day, becoming the first manta to be born inside a fish tank, officials said Sunday. (The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium)SCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
