10 Last Minute Liveaboard Deals - Save up to $2000!
We bring you news of the latest dive boat deals, specially selected for us by Divebooker.com, the liveaboard specialists. Including 7, 10 and 14 night trips.
Aurora, Raja Ampat 20 - 26 December 2023 (6 nights), SAVE 25%, Price from EUR 2,949 2,212 per trip per person
Turks & Caicos Explorer II, , Provo, West Caicos, French Cay, 8 - 25 Nov 2023 (7 nights), SAVE $1200, Price from USD 3,195 1,995 per trip per person. Valid for new reservations only, booked, and deposited between August 10 and September 15, 2023. Cannot be combined with other discounts or credits.
Creature of the month is the Sicklefin Devil Ray, Mobula tarapacana
The beautiful sicklefin devil rays are fast and often jump out of the water. Sometimes mistaken for manta rays, you can tell these rays apart by their dark green to brown colour. Their "horns" (cephalic fins) point forward rather than curling like the mantas. This is were they got their name "devil ray". Sicklefin devil rays. Photo credit: Tim Nicholson.
The largest sicklefin devil ray ever observed was a female with a wing span of 370 cm, more commonly females are 270 cm and males are around 250 cm. They are over a metre wide even when they are born. These rays reproduce slowly, the females having just one pup at a time and possibly pausing for up to three years between pregnancies.
Devil rays in the Azores – Princess Alice Bank. Photo credit: Tim Nicholoson
Populations of the rays have been declining and they are now endangered. Together with their slow reproductive rate, the main reasons for their decline is that their gill plates are prized in Asia
And more Sicklefin Devil Rays . Photo credit: Tim Nicholson.
The rays range around the world, in temperate to tropical ocean waters. Although the Sicklefin devil ray is highly migratory their migration patterns are still unknown to us but they can travel great distances. The Azores, however, is one of the few places that the endangered sicklefin devil rays are known to congregate. Another is the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, again way out in the Atlantic.
One of the best places to see sicklefin devil rays is in the Azores, either via day boats from the shore or by Azores liveaboard.
References
Sibele Alves de Mendonca et al Dancing with the devil: courtship behaviour, mating evidences and population structure of the Mobula tarapacana (Myliobatiformes: Mobulidae) in a remote archipelago in the Equatorial Mid-Atlantic Ocean. 2020.
Census hoping to help save the grey nurse shark in Australia Celebrated shark diver and conservationist Valerie Taylor and a coalition of divers and Indigenous leaders have united in a collective effort to safeguard the iconic grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus).
Oceans release microplastics into the atmosphere Microplastic particles are present in the marine atmosphere even in remote parts of the world. These tiny particles come from land sources but are also re-emitted into the atmosphere from the sea
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Photo credits:DepositPhotos, Tim Nicholson, Jill Studholme
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