Sightings of Atlantic Pygmy Devil Ray and other devil rays in waters of the Republic of the Congo

Marijke N. de Boer

The Mobula communities inhabiting eastern tropical Atlantic (ETA) waters along the west coast of Africa are globally amongst the most poorly studied. The limited recent information available is derived mainly from the monitoring of strandings and fisheries interactions at landing sites. However, little is known about the habitat preferences of the species that occur off Congo because at-sea sightings have rarely been published.

Mobula hypostoma, Atlantic Pygmy Devil Rays, were observed during megafauna surveys in the shallow coastal waters off the Republic of the Congo. These are the first records of this species in its natural habitat in Congolese waters, which may well offer an important habitat for these coastal batoids, but further research is needed. There is an urgent need for management measures to protect M. hypostoma throughout its African range, particularly in view of the recent increase in fishing activities within the region.

The main purpose of this study was to contribute information on the distribution and relative abundance of mobula rays sighted during a geophysical survey in Congo waters and where possible relating the occurrence of different species with oceanographic parameters such as sea surface temperature (SST) and depth.

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The dataset has been updated over time as outlined below. Each entry includes the version number, release date, type of change, and a short description.

Overview

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. The availability of the attributes depends on the share policy. When "Minimum attributes" is selected, only date/time, lat/lon, species identification and group size are available. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider. When "All attributes" is selected, all attributes are available in download.

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
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Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID number (generated by OBIS-SEAMAP)
ref	Reference number
date	Date of observation
time	Time of observation in local time zone
date_time	Date and time of observation
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
number	Group size
species	Species name
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
identification	Identification (Definite or Probably)
behaviour	Animal behavior
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP