MEPS

Marine Ecology Progress Series

MEPS is a leading hybrid research journal on all aspects of marine, coastal and estuarine ecology. Priority is given to outstanding research that advances our ecological understanding.

Online: ISSN 1616-1599

Print: ISSN 0171-8630

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps

Impact Factor2.1 (JCR 2025 release)

Article Acceptance Rate52.2% (2024)

Average Time in Review216 days (2024)

Total Annual Downloads2.971.124 (2025)

Volume contents
Mar Ecol Prog Ser 465:193-200 (2012)

Movement and habitat use by the spine-tail devil ray in the Eastern Pacific Ocean

ABSTRACT: The devil-ray family Mobulidae (order Myliobatiformes) comprises wide-ranging, pelagic batoids, but little is known about their basic ecology. We present the first data on the long-distance movement of mobulid devil rays. We attached pop-up archival satellite tags to 13 individuals of the spine-tail devil ray Mobula japanica (disk width 199.5 ± 30.0 cm; mean ± SD) off Baja California Sur to examine their habitat movement patterns. Tags remained on the rays for 83 ± 52 d (mean ± SD). Although their primary prey undergo diel migrations from depths >100 m during the day to the surface at night, tagged individuals spent the majority of their time (89.5 ± 3.1% during the day and 96.8 ± 3.5% at night; mean ± SD) near the surface at a depth of ≤50 m in 20 to 30°C water. Thus, M. japanica likely forages at night and remains near the surface during the day, where warmer water temperatures likely confer a physiological advantage. Most (8 of 13) individuals moved from the tagging location in the southern Gulf of California to the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, tracking published records of seasonal patterns in euphausiid abundance, similar to other top predators in the region. The depths and geographic regions occupied by M. japanica coincide with the focus of artisanal and industrial fisheries. This overlap with fisheries, when combined with the delayed maturity and low reproductive rates of devil rays, raises concerns of potentially damaging high bycatch mortality.

KEYWORDS

Donald A. Croll (Co-author)

  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, University of California Santa Cruz, 100 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, California 95060, USA

Kelly M. Newton (Co-author)

  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, University of California Santa Cruz, 100 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, California 95060, USA

Kevin Weng (Co-author)

  • Pelagic Fisheries Research Program, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1000 Pope Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA

Felipe Galván-Magaña (Co-author)

  • Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas, Apartado Postal 592, La Paz, Baya California Sur, 23096, Mexico

John O’Sullivan (Co-author)

  • Monterey Bay Aquarium, 886 Cannery Row, Monterey, California 93950, USA

Heidi Dewar (Co-author)

  • Southwest Fisheries Science Center, 8604 La Jolla Shores Dr., La Jolla, California 92037, USA