Scientist Identifies New Manta Ray Species: Dr. Andrea Marshall’s Discovery of the Atlantic Manta

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Ladies and gentlemen, I have a
special announcement to make, actually

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two special announcements to make.

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One is personal to me.

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I'm gonna say that after.

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But the first thing is that there has
been a new discovery, a new species

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of manta ray, the Atlantic Manta Ray
that has been announced and discovered.

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It is by a dear friend of the podcast
as well as the Beyond Jaws podcast, Dr.

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Andrea Marshall and her
Marine Megafauna Foundation.

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I'm gonna go through the story, but
I'm very excited to be announcing this.

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This is a huge news in the science
world, in the SMA brank world, the

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shark ray, and kymera species world.

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Because it's a new species.

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There's only been two before.

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Now there's a third.

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We're gonna get into it.

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The other thing I wanted to announce
very quickly, this is episode 1801.

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So that's 1,801 episodes.

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I was gonna make the announcement last
time, but I was really into the episode.

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I want to do this.

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It's such a good news episode.

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I decided to like, you know
what, we got two great new

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things that are happening today.

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So this is, again, going into the 18
hundreds for me, which is huge as a

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podcaster, as well as talking about the
new discovery of a new manta ray the

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Atlantic Manta Ray that is coming, from
the Marine Mega Foundation and Dr. Andrea

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Marshall and her crew, loving this day.

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Let's start the show.

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Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to another exciting episode
of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and
this is the podcast where you find

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out what's happening with the ocean,
how you can speak up for the ocean,

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and what you can do to live for
a better ocean by taking action.

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If you wanna take action before we
get into all this wonderful good

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news, I got good news for you.

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If you wanna take action, you can help
be guided to take better action for

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the ocean by joining the undertow.

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It's an online community of ocean lovers,
ocean scientists, ocean conservationists.

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There's gonna be wave
makers that are there.

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People who independently are putting
through projects just like mine,

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like this podcast as well as other
wave makers out there that are going

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around the world and giving you
stories and giving you information

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products that you could buy.

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There's gonna be ocean connection
trips that you can make.

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And there's just gonna be just discussions
on a regular basis about the ocean.

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No algorithms straight up discussion.

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Ocean news, it's gonna be awesome.

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Go to speak up for
blue.com/join the undertow.

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Let's get to it.

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This is a great story.

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So I want to go through this
story because it's something that

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I feel is really great and it
starts off with Andrea Marshall.

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Andrea Marshall was no
stranger to manta rays.

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She has spent years underwater
studying their graceful movement.

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In 2009, she made history by
proving that there wasn't just

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one manta ray species, but two.

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The moment shook the marine biology world.

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But even then, a mystery lingered in
the back of her mind while diving the

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Atlantic off the Yucatan Peninsula, she
saw something that didn't quite fit.

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These mantas looked familiar,
but something was different.

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Their shoulder markings weren't
shaped like a T, but like a sharp

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V. Their coloration was lighter
and their spots on their bellies

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didn't stretch the way they should.

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She trusted her instinct.

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This wasn't just a local variation.

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It could be something entirely new.

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She began documenting everything,
photographs, samples, observations.

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Every time she saw one, her
conviction grew stronger, but science

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doesn't run on instinct alone.

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Years passed and still the
evidence remains circumstantial.

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She reached out to collaborators
across the Atlantic and the Caribbean.

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They too had seen these odd rays,
but no one had the full picture.

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The mystery deepen the
weight of proof sat heavy.

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Meanwhile, her conservation
work expanded globally.

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And then in 2024, tragedy struck.

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Andrea suffered a sudden brain aneurysm.

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Her world turned upside down.

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Research pause, communication slowed,
but her colleagues didn't stop.

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Jessica Pate and Nayara
Bucair picked up the baton.

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They gathered the data Andrea
had compiled over the years.

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They ran the genetics compared
body structure map sightings,

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and finally the results were in.

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This was not a variation,
it was a distinct species.

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They named it Mobula Yarae after the
mythic Brazilian water spirit, a name

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that reflected both mystery and reverence.

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Andrea awoke to the
news from her recovery.

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The third manta ray species was real.

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A 15 year journey through dives, doubts,
and dreams finally had its answer.

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And she had been right all along.

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Now the ocean had a new story to tell.

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A story of resilience of the ocean
and of the people who study it, of how

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science sometimes requires stubbornness,
faith, and decades of quiet work.

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The Atlantic Manta Ray was
no longer a ghost species.

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It had a name, place, and a future,
and Dr. Andrea Marshall had once again

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rewritten what we thought we knew
about the sea, not by accident, but

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by listening closely to the ocean and
to the science and never letting go.

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This was a special
announcement that was made.

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You know, Andrea had an interview done
on the Beyond Jaws podcast was the

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first time I got to meet her with my
co-host Dr. David Ebert, who has known

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Andrea for years and years and years.

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In 2024 when we got News of the Aneurysm,
you know, it was devastating to hear.

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She is such an amazing scientist.

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And to have this announcement come out,
as she's recovering from that aneurysm and

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being able to see and understand that this
has a profound effect on how we study and

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monitor, manta rays and the importance
of how important science is to this world,

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There's so many things that we can
do now in monitoring these different

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species and protecting them because
it's not just a global population.

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It's a type of animal that has distinct
species throughout each different ocean.

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And I think it's gonna be really
important to see how this monitoring,

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how this management, and also how
many other species are out there

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that we just don't know about.

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And it's gonna take people who are in
the water, like Andrea, like other

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staff at Marine Mega Foundation and
other partners, that they have to

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be able to say, Hey, you know what?

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We know a lot more about the
species than we did before.

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it costs money.

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There's a lot of funding that's involved.

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There's a lot of people that's involved.

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There's a lot of time that's
involved to study these animals.

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And a lot of the times in the shark
world, if you watch the Beyond Jaws

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Podcast it just takes a number of
individuals to go out and study these.

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And sometimes it's often a low
amount of individuals, just a small

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amount of individuals that go out
and that study these animals and

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that discover new species, new
populations just all over the world.

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Not just manta rays, but other
shark species and other species

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that are living in the ocean.

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Whether it be fish, whether it
be vertebrates, invertebrates,

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it doesn't matter.

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There are people out there that are
in the ocean time and after time,

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after time making observations,
discovering these species.

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Sometimes it's in partnership
with non-scientists.

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Sometimes it's in partnership
with local communities.

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Oftentimes it's in partnerships with
local communities, in areas around the

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world that as scientists, we don't
really know very well, but we partner

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with these local like communities who
are like, yeah, we've seen the species.

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These are the markings
that we normally see.

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How are they different from others?

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And we have that communication go around.

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The science gets put into one place.

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We put out a paper to
say, Hey, you know what?

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This is a new species, or it's not a
new species, or it's just like a hybrid.

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it's really, really great.

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There's actually a really great episode
on Shark Bytes, which I will link in

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the show notes that you can see about
hybrid great whites and what that means

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in terms of where they're traveling
and the distinct lineages, not species,

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but lineages of these great whites.

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All over the world and how
they're mixing and where they're

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going and how they got there.

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It's a really, really great piece.

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really great video and I'm
gonna link to it below.

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But this is what people are
going out and looking at.

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This is why science needs to be funded.

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And if we don't fund this science,
we're not gonna make these discoveries.

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We're not gonna understand
the oceans better.

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And you never know what these species
and the habitats that they use and

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how they'll help us in the future
understand our planet better, protect us

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better, and maybe live in more harmony.

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So that's the episode for today.

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I hope you enjoyed it.

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I will link to the Marine Mega
Foundation article on this third

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species, but also, if you are interested
in supporting them, you can do that.

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There's a button called Support us.

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Highly recommend that you go
do that, to allow them to do

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more of this type of stuff.

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There are other manta ray
foundations that are out there

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that are doing great work as well.

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The Manta Trust is one of them.

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I'll link to that one as well.

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It's very important that we support these
organizations in discovering more about

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marine megafauna than we've ever had.

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It's really, really important that we
do that, to understand biodiversity,

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to understand why we need to
protect these species, and just

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understand the species in general.

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So thank you so much for listening
to this episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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I hope you enjoyed the good news.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from
the True Nor Strong and Free.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time
and happy conservation.