Most recently, Luke has been involved in a variety of research projects with the Save Our Seas Foundation’s (SOSF) D’Arros Island Research Centre in the Seychelles. Luke worked on a variety of different marine research projects, including the implementation and management of marine protect areas in the Philippines and Fiji, coral reef regeneration and environmental education in the Maldives, the feeding ecology of oceanic manta rays (M.birostris) in Ecuador with Marine Megafauna Foundation, and delving into the world of cryptobenthic fauna on soft sediment habitats across S.E Asia with Curtin University. Conducting online learning part-time was not easy, but it allowed Luke to carry on gaining valuable field experience across the globe. These experiences led Luke to enrol into the Open University and complete his BSc (Hons) in a distance-learning format, focusing on marine biology and environmental sciences. During his time there Luke encountered his first manta ray, and started becoming increasingly acquainted with the resident population of reef manta’s (M.alfredi). Over the following two years, Luke worked in Fiji, conducting marine resource inventories around the western coast of Gau Island in the Lomaiviti group. Being captivated by the tropical marine ecosystem and excelling in his role, Luke was offered a staff contract after three months, and spent the next six months in Madagascar working on empowering local communities with marine resource management strategies. He decided to gain some hands-on experience by initially volunteering in Madagascar on a marine environmental program. Luke finished school knowing he wanted to pursue a career investigating the natural world. Assess the distribution and ratio of black morph / chevron morph reef mantas within the Fijian population, and investigate the underlying genetics.Assist the Fijian government in establishing effective and sustainable conservation management and legislation, particularly with regards to managing tourism and reducing bycatch.Raise awareness of the conservation needs of mantas in Fiji, and the benefits of sustainable tourism over unsustainable fishing of these animals.Discover the migration patterns, population structure, ecology and biology of the Fijian manta rays, using photo identification, citizen science, remote cameras, drones, environmental monitoring and local knowledge.Identify reef manta aggregation sites throughout Fiji, and assess the connectivity between mantas observed at these sites. To achieve this goal, the Fiji Manta Ray Project works to meet the following objectives: To better understand the population dynamics of manta and devil rays throughout Fiji, in order to support the promotion of sustainable mobulid eco-tourism, and the effective regulation of bycatch fisheries in the nation’s waters.Īdditionally, the project hopes to increase our knowledge of the underlying causes of the black-morph, so that we may understand how and why its occurrence varies between manta populations. The project is working to better understand mobula ray movement ecology, population dynamics and genetic connectivity within the Fiji Islands, assisting government, local stakeholders and the tourism industry in developing more effective conservation management strategies. Manta Project Fiji is dedicated to the conservation of mobulid rays in the Fiji Islands through research, education and collaboration. Little information is known about the manta and devil rays found around South Pacific island nations like Fiji. Mantas in Fiji – Photo by Luke Gordon – Manta Trust Manta Project Fiji This provides an excellent opportunity to study the genetic differences between these two colour morphs, and discover any underlying factors that may cause the wide variations in the expression of the black morph observed in different parts of the world. In fact, Fiji’s population boasts one of the largest proportions of black-morph mantas of any well-studied reef manta populations. The Fijian population of reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) consists of both black and chevron-morph individuals. Oceanic Manta Ray (Mobula birostris) Mantas in Fiji
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