Fascinated by the beauties living in the Indonesian Archipelago. We’ve managed to see: a manta ray*, lot of sea turtles, thousands of tropical fishes, sea snakes and eels, lion fishes, a white stink ray and of course countless star fishes. ⭐️🐠 * Manta rays—highly intelligent and highly threatened—are the largest rays in the world. The sea creatures live in tropical, subtropical, and temperate ocean waters across the globe. There’re two distinct species: the reef manta ray, which tends to live along coastlines in the Indo-Pacific -the one we found-, and the giant oceanic manta ray, which lives in all the world’s major oceans, spending most of its life far from land. While the smaller reef manta has an impressive wingspan of about 11 feet wide on average, the giant oceanic manta ray—the largest species of ray—can have a wingspan of up to 29 feet. Both sub-species of manta ray are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN. Their greatest threat is overfishing. Because they’re long-living and slow to reproduce, localized populations have a difficult time bouncing back when fished. Manta rays are fished for their meat, and, increasingly, their gill plates. In demand for Chinese medicine, they’re said to help with everything from increasing blood circulation to curing chickenpox, despite a lack of scientific evidence. They’re also considered by some to be a delicacy. Thousands of manta rays are killed each year for their plates, in a trade estimated to be worth $30 million. Source: National Geographic