VIDEO. “Unusual and never seen before”: a manta ray several meters long washes up on a Catalan beach and gives birth to a baby

La raie manta sur le rivage catalan. Capture Facebook CREAC

Ce dimanche 12 mai 2024, un événement "insolite" a lieu sur les côtes catalanes : une raie manta de plusieurs mètres a mis bat près des plages de Barcelone en Espagne.

This is a first. This Sunday, people who were on the beach in Calafell, a town located in Catalonia 1 hour from Barcelona, ​​were able to witness an extremely rare thing. A manta ray, which usually lives in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, washed up on this Catalan beach and gave birth, reports the media CCMA.

A three-meter manta fish

With the good weather, many people went to the beaches, where the sun was shining. But by the sea, this Sunday, a manta fish washed up. The tourists then immediately called emergency services to warn of the presence of the animal on the sand and which seemed to be in difficulty.

Specialists from the Calafell Environmental Research and Education Center then went there and discovered the animal on the shore. "It’is not a giant manta, but it’s the manta found in the Mediterranean" , explains Daniel Fernández, director of CREAC, and who adds that such an event is absolutely not common.

▶️ Fet insòlit a Calafell. Una manta ha donat a llum a les costes catalanes.

Un equip de CREAC Calafell ha ajudat en el rescat d'una manta després de l'avís de salvament marítim. pic.twitter.com/3eySssHeKB

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Note that an intervention with a manta fish is very delicate since it is a protected and threatened species, which must be followed a specific protocol. "Once the animal was calm, it gave birth. An unusual event never before seen on the Catalan coast, declared the expert.

However, scientists do not know why this manta ray was here. From the moment they are born, newborns no longer need their parents. The magnificent event that nature was able to offer remains truly extremely rare since just afterward, this three-meter beast was escorted a little further, that is to say, into slightly deeper waters in order to resume its life. normal.