Mantas, easily recognizable by their pectoral "wings," stay near the ocean's surface, unlike other rays.
蝠鲼在海面停留时，胸翼会放射出与众不同的光芒，所以很容易识别。
The stately dance in the milky waters turns into a free-for-all, with hundreds of mantas bumping into each other.
水中庄严集体舞瞬间变成了数百尾蝠鲼间互相碰撞的自由舞。
Graceful and efficient, 2, 000-pound mantas feed on Indian Ocean krill as silversides swirl around them in Hanifaru Bay in the Maldives.
马尔代夫的哈尼法如湾内，一群重达2,000磅，姿态优雅、捕食高效的蝠鲼正在吞食被银河鱼旋绕住的印度洋磷虾。
Despite their large size, with wingspans stretching up to 12 feet (3.6 meters), as many as 200 mantas may pack a football field-sized bay during these feeding frenzies.
尽管它们体型巨大，光是翼幅展开就宽达3.6米，但在这种狼吞虎咽的关键时刻，一块只有足球场大的海湾区域还是有多达200只的蝠鲼挤在一起。
Within hours the plankton run out, the feast winds down, and the mantas plow the bay's sandy bottom with their cephalic fins to throw hidden prey back into the water column.
在几个小时内浮游生物的盛宴即将结束，而蝠鲼犁其头鳍于海湾的沙底中，等待下一批猎物的到来。
These massive fish (the wingspans of Maldives mantas can reach 12 feet) are dynamic filter feeders, shoveling their shoe-box mouths through krill like threshers through wheat, inhaling prey.
这种大型鱼类(马尔代夫蝠鲼翼展可达12米)是动态的滤食者，它们的大嘴吸入食物就如同向小麦脱粒机里铲麦子一般。
Mantas, with their slow reproductive rate, are vulnerable to overfishing, so a robust tourist trade could give local communities an economic incentive to conserve the fish rather than kill them.
蝠鲼繁殖率缓慢，很容易受到过度捕捞，所以强大的旅游业可以给当地社区的经济补助，以保护鱼类，而不是杀死它们。
Cue Manta birostris. "Just after high tide you'll see a few manta rays turn up, " says Guy Stevens, a British marine biologist who's been researching the Maldives mantas for the past three years.
“高大的潮头过后我们能看到一些蝠鲼，”GuyStevens说道，他是一位研究马尔代夫蝠鲼三年之久的英国海洋生物学家。
Cue Manta birostris. "Just after high tide you'll see a few manta rays turn up, " says Guy Stevens, a British marine biologist who's been researching the Maldives mantas for the past three years.
“高大的潮头过后我们能看到一些蝠鲼，”GuyStevens说道，他是一位研究马尔代夫蝠鲼三年之久的英国海洋生物学家。
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