Every June, something happens in the waters north of Menorca that most people will never see.
The mobula rays arrive.
They come from the open Mediterranean, moving in loose formations just below the surface — their wingtips breaking the water as they feed, their white undersides catching the light from above. Some years you find them in groups of thirteen. Other years, three. Sometimes just one, alone, crossing an empty sea.
I've been following this migration for five years. I leave from Menorca, head out into open water, and search. Some days I find nothing. Some encounters last thirty seconds before they disappear into the blue. But sometimes — on the days that make all the others worth it — they let you stay.
This year was exceptional.
I found them travelling alongside striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba), which I had never witnessed before. Two species moving together through the same corridor of water, for reasons that science is still trying to understand. Later, a separate group was accompanied by a juvenile Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) — a solitary fish shadowing the rays as they fed at the surface.
Nobody sent me coordinates. There is no app for this. You learn the currents, you watch the surface, you go out enough times that the sea starts to show you things.
Why this matters beyond the photograph.
Mobula mobular — the giant devil ray — is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. They are rarely studied in the wild because they are difficult to find and even more difficult to follow. Every encounter I document becomes part of a larger record: locations, group sizes, associated species, behaviours, dates. This information is shared with the scientific community, because photographs are not just art — they are evidence.
The image above shows two rays at the surface, photographed from directly above. Their wingtips leave ripples in the deep blue water. They are completely unaware of me, or completely indifferent — with mobulas, it is hard to tell.
It took five years of searching to make this photograph.
Two Mobulas is available as a limited edition fine art print — on museum-quality Fuji Crystal paper or Hahnemühle Fine Art Pearl, in seven sizes, with free worldwide shipping.
→ See the print: https://27mm.net/products/230611-0a0a2395