Adopt a Smalleye Stingray

Why adopt a smalleye stingray?

Looking to adopt a stingray? When you adopt a smalleye stingray, you back research on one of the ocean's least-known giants. The smalleye (Megatrygon microps) is the largest marine stingray on record, reaching disc widths of up to 222 cm, yet almost nothing is known about it. It is listed as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List.

Southern Mozambique is the best place in the world to study it. MMF researchers reported the first record of the species in Africa in 2008, a range extension of more than 5,000 km (3,100 miles) from its closest known location, in the Maldives. Elsewhere, sightings are infrequent, and MMF co-founder Dr. Andrea Marshall has written that southern Mozambique may hold the largest remaining population of these giant rays.

That population faces growing pressure. Gill-netting, long-lining, and seine netting have increased markedly along the Mozambican coast, and the smalleye's large size and curiosity toward people make it an easy target. Large stingrays typically take years to reach adulthood and have small litters, so losses are slow to replace. When Mozambique's fishing law protected whale sharks and manta rays, smalleye stingrays were left out, and MMF has lobbied for them to be added.

About smalleye stingrays

The name fits. Their eyes are tiny for their body size, and MMF researchers often see them bump into soft coral sea whips and sponges as they move around the inshore reefs to visit cleaning stations. There, reef bannerfish and other small fish appear to pick parasites from their skin.

Their long, wing-like pectoral fins are built for swimming, and researchers once thought smalleyes might never rest on the seabed. Then, after the first tagging, the divers followed him across the sand and watched him stop and bury himself, just like a typical stingray.

Each ray carries white spots across its back, and MMF has shown that the pattern is stable enough to identify individuals over many years. Those photographs have revealed long trips along the coast: one near-term pregnant female traveled from Tofo to the Bazaruto Archipelago and back, a 400 km (250 mile) return trip, and came back no longer visibly pregnant. In 2025 an MMF researcher filmed a pair courting at the surface in Tofo.

How your smalleye stingray adoption helps

Your smalleye stingray adoption supports MMF's work as a whole, including the Mozambique Smalleye Stingray Research Project, led by Dr. Nakia Cullain, and MMF's wider research and conservation work along Mozambique's Inhambane coast. The team is beginning to estimate the abundance and movements of smalleyes along the southern Mozambican coast, and plans to monitor artisanal fisheries to measure catches of the species and identify hotspots for further investigation.

Since reporting the species from Mozambique in 2008, MMF has:

• Identified almost 100 individual smalleye stingrays in southern Mozambique by photo-identification, the largest database of its kind in the world, helped by photos and video from recreational divers.
• Published the first study of how long the rays' dorsal spot patterns last, and whether photo-identification works for monitoring them over the long term.
• Recorded regular sightings at more than a dozen sites in southern Mozambique, including throughout the Bazaruto Seascape.
• Placed the first tags on free-swimming smalleye stingrays: 11 tags by 2023, with three rays carrying two tags each, and more rays tagged at Tofo in August 2026. Their acoustic signals are logged by the underwater receiver network MMF shares with partners.
• Co-authored the current IUCN Red List assessment for the species.