Keeping a database of local mantas is so important to me (Cath who runs Eco Tribe at Camel Dive Club).  In 2010 we were lucky enough to host Manta Queen Andrea Marshall who took a particular interst in our Manta Birostris population.  She returned the favour in 2011 and I spent 2 weeks with her and her team in Tofo, Mozambique.   I was privaleged to be witness to tagging, tissue sampling, measuring with lasers and of course the famous photo-IDing.

Andrea started the database Manta Matcher where we can all send our encounters and photos of sightings.  Belly shots are particularly important as each manta has it's own individual fingerprint as markings on the belly.  Manta Matcher can search through all sightings and pair up the same manta if it is seen more than once.

It was by chance one day when I was in the office uploading pictures to Manta Matcher, that our resident photographer Cinzia uploaded a sighting of a Manta Alfredi to Facebook.  Alfredi are quite rare in our part of the Red Sea so I flicked through my records and Presto! There she was. Parabola was first sighted in June 2013 at Ras Umm Sid.  Seen a second time on Middle Garden May 2015.

This is actually the 4th time we have seen this in Sharm but all previous sightings were Giant Mantas. The resightings have 1-2 years between sightings.  We don't know if these beauties go away or just lay dormant or deeper in Red Sea waters, but it is still, according to Andrea "very very cool and amazing!"