Manta Rays in Culture

Manta Rays in Popular Culture

There are plenty of references to the Manta Ray in popular culture. The earliest known stories are from Peru. The people of this area used to worship them in addition to many other creatures in the water. This is why the Manta Ray is so prevalent in their early writings and art work.

There are wild stories too of the Manta Rays destroying boats in order to get to the humans on board. However, it is now confirmed that there are avid jumpers and that their body movements close to the boats may have caused them to be damaged. Today boats are made from more durable materials so that isn’t as likely to happen. In fact, it is the Manta Rays that will end up being harmed or killed from such events now.

Ironically, Manta Rays are very gentle creatures. Yet the movies about them portray them as sea creatures that will consume people. These early movies are based on information that they had at that time which was very little. It wasn’t until much later that the truth was learned about them. Should you want a good laugh though check them out to see how these creatures are portrayed. Your options include The Sea Bat from 1930 and the Devil Monster from 1946.

There are also stories that developed long ago in history about the Manta Ray being a protector of men. They were said to help them get from the wrath of the water to the comfort of the shore. Today we do know that Manta Rays have been known to give divers rides to the surface of the water. So there may be plenty of truth to these early stories in popular culture. Yet the animals weren’t gods but very intelligent creatures that could sense something wasn’t right for the humans in the water.

There are many places online where you can watch live feeds of the Manta Ray. For many of this, we will never get close enough to them in real life to see it any better than that. There are many wonderful documentaries out there too made by researchers and divers that have explored some of the aspects of these amazing creatures.

One of the reasons why you don’t see or hear about them so much in popular culture is that may people assume they don’t really have a purpose other than to look good in the water. Since we don’t know enough about them, that may very well be true. However, it is also possible that the Manta Ray holds more of a value than we have come to realize so far.

Today you will find that the Manta Ray has its place in popular culture due to sports. In Florida the Tampa Bay Rays are a major league baseball team. Should you love thrill rides, the Sea World in Florida has just opened a new ride called the Manta. The ride takes the portrayal that you are a Manta Ray and you will be flying around.