Clip: SUP Surfer and Shark Advocates Save a Manta Ray in Hawaii
Surfing can be a very selfish sport.
We get our kicks in the ocean, fighting everyone else in the lineup for our own perfect wave.
But we're also stewards of the ocean with a responsibility to the water and the life in it, as seen in the clip below.
Ocean Ramsey—a North Shore-based surfer, author, diver, and marine life activist—posted the footage above.
Captioning the post, she explained that North Shore resident, surfer, and filmmaker, Keoni TeTawa Bowthorpe, was "saving more lives from his SUP."
Bowthorpe was out stand-up paddling outside of Haleiwa with his son, Reef, when they saw a manta ray circling them with "a 10+ foot line entangled on it."
He called Ramsey and her team at One Ocean Conservation to help.
Ramsey continued:
"We grabbed a board, the knives from our daily reef clean-ups for @savetheseaturtlesinternational and/or for removing fishing line entanglement from sharks @oneoceandiving and it was a small weird thing to have just found this Manta suit today, grabbing things to pack for our next international project."
She explained that when she arrived, she paddled over and put her head in the water, careful to avoid mimicking predatory behavior and scaring it away.
Ramsey removed the line and the manta was freed.
"It was relaxed with the boards and I was able to collect the length of the line and cut it close to the fin as it circled to me. I dove in once for the immediate line wrap but with the fading line couldn’t tell if it was a scar or 2nd line wrapped lower," she wrote.
Finally, Ramsey reminded her followers:
"The more people who can offset the devastation of others the better off the natural world, wildlife, and future generations will be.
"So even a random debris up as you go feels like a small thing…something as small as a bottle cap, bag, or line can be all the difference to the life of another."
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