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Story: Oceanic fish

Manta ray

This manta ray was seen off the Poor Knights Islands in 2002. A rare visitor to New Zealand’s northern waters, the ray is commonly found in warmer subtropical waters. The first substantiated reports of manta rays in New Zealand were in 1968, when three were photographed near the Alderman Islands in the western Bay of Plenty.

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How to cite this page

Carl Walrond, Oceanic fish – New Zealand’s oceanic species, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/8756/manta-ray (accessed 10 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 2 March 2009.

Comments

Bill Thurlow
08 March 2011
Last Thursday (3 March 2011) we observed 2, possibly 3 manta rays while game fishing in 100 metres of water aprox 7 miles south east of the Alderman Islands in the WBOP. These fish were hugh with an estimated 'wing span' of 4 metres, at times the tips of their wings could be clearly seen out of the water - unfortunately we did not not get photograph. The water temperature in the area was aprox 22C and there were large numbers of Skipjack tuna in the area along with a number of Blue and Mako sharks,dolphins,a pod of Pilot Whales and aprox 10 Orca.