The Lesser Sunda Seascape Tracking Network

The Lesser Sunda Seascape stretches from Bali to the waters of Timor-Leste, crossing three Indonesian provincial boundaries. The migratory species that move through it recognize none of those lines — and until we understand how they use this corridor, we cannot manage it at the scale that matters. The Lesser Sunda Seascape Tracking Network is an acoustic telemetry array designed to find that out, one species at a time.

We begin with reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi). For more than a decade, the Indonesia Manta Ray Project has identified individual mantas by the unique spot patterns on their bellies. We have now cataloged more than 900 at Nusa Penida and more than 1,300 in Komodo National Park; some of the same animals appear at both sites, 450 kilometers (280 miles) apart. While photographs tell us who is where, they cannot tell us how the animals get there, or which habitats they use in between.

In 2026, our Indonesia team deployed the first receivers in the network. Each tagged manta carries a small acoustic transmitter; when the animal passes within range of a receiver, the detection is recorded. Over time, those records will show how individual manta rays move through the corridor, and may reveal critical habitats that remain unstudied.

Manta rays are our starting species, but the network is built to grow. As the array expands, we hope to tag other migratory animals that share this seascape — building the evidence base for management that matches the scale of how wildlife actually moves, across provinces and across borders.

Objectives

1. Map how individual manta rays move between aggregation sites, connecting acoustic detections to more than a decade of photo-identification data from Nusa Penida and Komodo.
2. Fill a critical data gap across West Nusa Tenggara, where manta ray presence has never been systematically recorded.
3. Identify aggregation sites and critical habitats in the corridor between Nusa Penida and Komodo that remain unknown or unprotected.
4. Extend the network to other migratory species, building a multi-species picture of how wildlife moves through the Lesser Sunda Seascape.
5. Provide the evidence base for coordinated conservation management across the three Indonesian provinces and Timor-Leste that together govern this corridor.