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<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
car-sized, kite-shaped fishes don’t have to clear their throats because
of their unique method of filtration that could be applied to preventing
plastic pollution in the seas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=balancedheadline><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>The
Marvelous Filters in the Manta Ray’s Mouth</span></b></span><b><span
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:1.6rem;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: normal;
font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.75rem;max-width: 600px'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";letter-spacing:.25pt'>By<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/veronique-greenwood"><span class=css-1baulvz><span
style='color:windowtext;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>Veronique
Greenwood</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Sept.
26, 2018<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/science/manta-ray-filters.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience?utm_source=briefing-dy&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=briefing&utm_content=20180927<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='line-height:12.0pt;background:white;vertical-align:
baseline'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>It all
began with a simple question: Why don’t manta rays clear their throats?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='line-height:12.0pt;background:white;vertical-align:
baseline;margin:1.25rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:
inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.1875rem;line-height:1.75rem;
max-width: 100%'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>The
car-size, kite-shaped fishes filter their plankton food from seawater, but they
don’t pause, close their mouths and snort clogs from their filters nearly
as often as you would expect, according to Misty Paig-Tran, a marine biologist
and a professor at California State University, Fullerton. If their filters
work like sieves, then they must get clogged over time, like all similar
systems, from vacuum cleaners to your water-filter pitcher.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='line-height:12.0pt;background:white;vertical-align:
baseline;margin:1.25rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:
inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.1875rem;line-height:1.75rem;
max-width: 100%'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>But
Dr. Paig-Tran and her colleagues’ latest research,<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/9/eaat9533" target="_blank"
title=""><span style='font-family:"inherit","serif";color:#326891;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;
padding:0in'>published Wednesday in Science Advances,</span></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>shows that the manta ray is using a
previously unknown method of filtration that causes particles to glide over its
straining system, rather than go through it. It doesn’t need to clear its
filters much because they’re rarely clogged.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:12.0pt;
background:white;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;
font-weight:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.1875rem;line-height:1.75rem;
max-width: 100%'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>To
understand how the manta’s filters work, imagine a series of tiny angled
slats lined up in its mouth. When seawater rushes over these structures,
according to experiments by Raj Divi, a student in Dr. Paig-Tran’s lab,
it forms whirlpools between each pair of slats. These vortices don’t suck
particles down. Instead they push up, keeping the fragments of plankton and
other seaborne particles from falling into the crevices.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:12.0pt;
background:white;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;
font-weight:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit'><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:12.0pt;
background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:#333333'>As a result the particles ricochet off the slats, growing
concentrated in the mouth while the water drains away. They never actually get
in the filter, according to both lab experiments washing colored dye and
particles over plastic versions of the structures, and mathematical models of
what’s going on. They are bounced out before they get the chance, and
then are swallowed by the ray.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='vertical-align:baseline'><span class=css-1dv1kvn><span
style='font-family:"inherit","serif";border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>Video</span></span><span
style='font-family:"inherit","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='line-height:12.0pt;background:white;vertical-align:
baseline'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>This is not
the first time that researchers have found that filter feeders are probably not
simply sieving.<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0150106"
target="_blank" title=""><span style='font-family:"inherit","serif";color:#326891;
border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>According to one study</span></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>looking at this question in whales,
water may rush across the front and back of the giant mammals’ baleens at
different speeds, causing a pressure difference that allows plankton to build
up on the interior of the mouth. But other marine creatures do seem to be
sieving, such as the basking shark, which sometimes closes its mouth and clears
clogs in its filters with a kind of cough.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:12.0pt;
background:white;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;
font-weight:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit'><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>Understanding how the manta
ray is feeding and what it is eating may assist conservation efforts.
“This is a protected animal that is being harvested like crazy. And we
don’t even have a good handle on what they’re feeding on,” Dr.
Paig-Tran said, noting that this could aid in understanding what organisms they
depend on and whether they are ingesting plastic particles floating in the
ocean.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:12.0pt;
background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:12.0pt;
background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:#333333'>It could also lead to filters for human use, relying on this
method. In the past, machines that use clever engineering to avoid the buildup
of obstructions while filtering have met with striking success: some vacuum
cleaners, for instance, separate dust from the air using centrifugal force,
rather than a filter that grows caked with grit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='line-height:12.0pt;background:white;vertical-align:
baseline;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;
font-stretch: inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit'><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>Dr. Paig-Tran hopes that
this discovery will aid in the battle against microplastics in the ocean.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='line-height:12.0pt;background:white;vertical-align:
baseline;margin:1.25rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:
inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.1875rem;line-height:1.75rem;
max-width: 100%'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>Tiny
plastic pieces may wind up in wastewater, she said, “but they don’t
get treated in wastewater treatment because they’re not equipped for that
size particle.” Manta rays, in contrast, are good at filtering at such a
scale.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=css-xhhu0i style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:12.0pt;
background:white;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;
font-weight:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.1875rem;line-height:1.75rem;
max-width: 100%'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>Imagine
a clog-resistant filter modeled on the manta’s mouth and placed in a
treatment plant to catch plastic fragments before they are released into the
environment. To Dr. Paig-Tran, that seems like an intriguing potential use for
the system she and her colleagues have described.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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