Preying on Mantas : After Divers Videotape Slaughter, Officials Enact Regulation to Aid Rays off Mexican Island

Terry Kennedy was stunned, but he managed to push the button on his video camera and keep a steady hand.

Joyce Clinton couldn’t hold back the tears as she watched, but she, too, was able to shoot away.

The two American divers, during a recent trip to Mexico’s Revillagigedo Islands, could do little else but take pictures as fishermen aboard two Mexican-flagged boats moved into the government-protected waters of San Benedicto Island, the northernmost of the chain, and used nets, baited hooks and harpoons to catch and kill anything they could.

“We were outnumbered,” Kennedy, who lives aboard his sailboat with Clinton, said after reaching La Paz late Monday night.

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, as the incident has been called, occurred on Feb. 14. But the issue remains hot in Mexico, and Kennedy’s video has become a catalyst in the movement to save the giant Pacific manta rays of the Revillagigedos.

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Divers who have been to the Revillagigedo Islands, a volcanic chain of four islands stretching from 220 miles to 400 miles south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, say there is something magical about the place.

Dolphins seem always to be in a playful mood. Turtles use their little legs to push their way around the colorful reefs, which flourish under the penetrating rays of a tropical sun.

The water is so clear that schools of tuna and marlin and even large sharks can often be seen patrolling the offshore canyons and drop-offs.

But divers say the manta rays make a trip to the islands special. With their 20-foot spans, they often hover below boats “like giant space stations” waiting for divers to jump in and grab hold for a guided tour of their blue-green world.

“We started eight years ago trying to swim with these animals and after several weeks and many hours in the water, they started to come closer and let you touch them,” said Mike McGettigan, 54, owner of the dive boat Ambar III, who has made more than 100 trips to the islands. “As soon as that happened, they were our friends forever.”

Riding on the back of a giant manta, La Paz-based dive boat operator John Rife said, “is like riding on a magic carpet.” Killing one for a small profit, he added, “is no different than killing a panda bear to make a rug.”

Rife’s comparison might sound extreme, but divers believe they have developed a special bond with the manta rays.

Kennedy, 50, says one manta he named “Willy Wow” years ago lets him know when it’s time to go for a swim with a “gentle slap of his wing on the hull of the boat.”

Days went by without an appearance by Willy Wow on Kennedy’s latest trip, which began Feb. 4. Kennedy feared the worst, especially after witnessing the events of Feb. 14.

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Kennedy and Clinton were anchored at the south end of San Benedicto. They were awakened by fishermen laying out their gear only 200 yards from shore. Mexican law prohibits commercial fishermen from fishing within two miles of the islands.

Soon, the fishermen started to haul in their catch.

“Our worst fears came true,” Kennedy said. “Two of the mantas that we were riding the day before were hopelessly tangled in the nets. (They) were torn to pieces.”

Kennedy’s camera was rolling while the crew struggled to get one manta out of its net. Clinton’s sobbing, and cries of “Oh, God, no!” were picked up by the camera.

The nets were so damaged by the struggling mantas that they were tossed overboard, the mantas still in them. Thousands of feet of monofilament nets settled over the reefs, trapping and killing other fish.

Crew members turned their attention to the long-line gear, hauling it in and finding little but dead or dying reef sharks on the hooks. The larger sharks had their fins removed for sale on the Japanese market. The reef sharks were cut from the hooks and dumped overboard. A once-thriving reef was soon littered with dead sharks.

The crew aboard the other boat, the Mero VII, was busy harpooning a manta ray that had come too close to the boat. A large manta hanging from gaffs at the side of the boat was being stabbed repeatedly in the stomach with a small harpoon. The crew then got into a smaller boat and, at water level, used axes to cut the wings from the large ray. The wings, sometimes served as seafood, were then loaded aboard the vessel.

Kennedy had radioed McGettigan in Cabo San Lucas while the nets were in the water, and McGettigan had contacted the Mexican navy, which has a small base on Socorro Island, 30 miles south of San Benedicto. The navy arrived in time to seize one of the boats. The other escaped, but was later captured.

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The owners of the boats were fined and their fishing licenses were revoked, but more important, according to divers and conservationists, the documentation of the incident helped call attention to an apparent problem.

“It’s very sad to say, but what is going on is, little by little those islands are receiving more people, more commercial boats of several kinds,” said Enrique Fernandez Del Castillo, manager of Cabo Isle Marina in Cabo San Lucas. “These people were caught doing that and we think this is happening continuously because there is a drop in the number of manta rays at the islands.”

Mauricio Ruiz Galindo, president of Pronatura, a privately funded Mexican conservation movement, has been pushing hard for some sort of action by the government since the incident.

“I don’t know what they did with (the manta rays), but whatever they did, it’s not worth it,” Ruiz Galindo said. “The animal is worth more alive than it is dead, because it’s a tourist attraction.”

Mexico’s department of fisheries, or Pesca, had already begun working with other government agencies and on March 26 ruled it illegal to catch manta rays within 12 miles of the Revillagigedos “due to the slow growth and the low reproduction potential of the animals, so as not to affect their population levels,” said Xavier Gutierrez Tellez, director general of Pesca.

Manta rays taken accidentally must be released if still alive, and willful violators are subject to fines of up to $10,000 for each manta killed.

McGettigan hailed Mexico’s quick action.

“Now we’ve got to try to protect the area, to get word out that this problem is not going to go away,” he said.

Tim Means, owner of the La Paz-based Baja Expeditions, who has been running diving trips for the last 15 years, was more skeptical, saying that mantas at the Revillagigedos will go the way of the mantas in the Sea of Cortez if fishermen are allowed to fish with gill nets near the islands.

“It doesn’t make sense to make a regulation, but still allow the nets,” Means said. “We used to be able to ride mantas at the El Bajo Seamount, but it’s rare to see them these days.

“These big critters are worth thousands of dollars to me and others as a resource, and $20 to someone else.”

Castillo expressed concern over Mexico’s ability to enforce the new regulation in an area as remote as the Revillagigedos.

“What we need is more vessels of the navy in the area, more policemen,” he said. “Unfortunately, those islands are so far away it is very difficult to have them under control . . . and the boats we have here (at Socorro Navy Station) are boats bought from the United States from World War II. We are looking for alternatives to control the area.”

Pesca has asked the San Diego-based long-range fishing fleet, which fishes the islands extensively for giant yellowfin tuna and wahoo, to help keep an eye on the area. McGettigan says now that the word is out, fishermen will be more reluctant to raid the near-shore reefs of the islands.

He said members of Sea Watch will also make a more concentrated effort to keep an eye out. *

Kennedy and Clinton had spent 23 days at San Benedicto, remaining long after the Feb. 14 incident, cutting loose nets the fishermen had left on the reefs.

“We collected all the net our boat will hold, 100 pounds of evidence,” Kennedy said.

Then, on the 24th day, there was a gentle slap on the hull of his boat. Willy Wow had shown.

“I jumped over the side and we were having a ball,” Kennedy said. “We spent an hour riding out over the lava flow. . . . I was blown away. Then he stopped his trip right underneath the boat, he took me back where he got me. I just pushed off his back and went straight up and started yelling.”