Kategorie: News
Images that count
Report by Ralph Schill
Underwater photography is much more than a creative hobby: it plays a central role in citizen science projects. With photos of animals, plants, and aquatic habitats, amateur divers and snorkelers provide valuable data for research. At the same time, the images raise public awareness of the need to protect the underwater world and reveal its often hidden beauty. Underwater photography thus combines passion with active species and nature conservation.
Many people know the feeling: suddenly, larger fish appear, you hastily press the shutter button—and only when you look through the photos after the dive do you realize how lucky you were. Mandy Laicht from Kamen had a particularly lucky break while snorkeling off Cerf Island in the Seychelles, where she photographed a ray. The picture may not win any prizes in an underwater photography competition, but it is invaluable to science because it shows a real rarity.
The magnificent eagle ray Aetomylaeus vespertilio (Bleeker, 1852) is the largest member of the eagle ray family (Myliobatidae). With a fin width of over 3 m and a total length of up to 6 m, including its long, whip-like tail, it is impressively large. However, the species is rare and has been little studied to date. Due to unregulated fishing in large parts of its range and its general vulnerability to overfishing, the population is believed to have declined by more than 50% in the last three generations (approx. 45 years). As a result, A. vespertilio is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Despite its size and striking patterns, sightings of live animals are extremely rare. The few known records mostly come from fishing, and photos or direct observations are rare. In recent years, only about 50 new sightings have been documented from 2018 to 2025 through social media and contributions from citizen scientists. Such additional evidence is particularly valuable for expanding knowledge about the distribution of these endangered rays, especially from regions where they have not yet been detected.
Only a few sightings have been documented worldwide
Aetomylaeus vespertilio lives in coastal waters to a depth of at least 110 m and occurs in tropical and subtropical regions of the Indo-Pacific. It is often sighted above coral reefs and sandy and muddy areas. Its known range extends from eastern Australia to southern China, Indonesia, Palau, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, the Maldives, and the Seychelles to the Red Sea. There are isolated reports from South Africa and Mozambique.
In recent years, only a few sightings have been documented worldwide. In the Seychelles, there was one sighting northeast of Silhouette Island in 2022, another between Cousine Island and Grand Anse in 2024.
This makes it all the more wonderful that another sighting has now been documented in this region – by chance, thanks to Mandy, who met me during a student excursion from the University of Stuttgart at The Breakers and the Orca diving center in Soma Bay. How many other valuable photographs of rare species have been taken without their scientific significance being recognized or shared?
A big thank you to Mandy for this great find! I would like to encourage everyone to capture your special observations with a camera and make them available to science – every recording counts.
Note: If you also have exciting data or photos to contribute, please feel free to contact Prof. Dr. Ralph O. Schill at ralphschill@bio.uni-stuttgart.de or via the non-profit organization aquatil – for underwater education and research: www.aquatil.org.
You can find him at the aquatil booth 11I17 at the international water sports fair boot Düsseldorf and on stage in Hall 11 during the lecture “Images that count.”