Tobago Rays and Big Fish

Mantas

Manta rays

Off Speyside and Little Tobago

Tobago sits near the mouth of the Orinoco, where the river’s outflow meets the nutrient-rich Guiana Current (DAN Alert Diver). The north-east’s drift dives are where mantas, hammerheads and tarpon turn up.

Manta ray Mobula

Speyside is known for oceanic mantas (Divernet). In 2025 the Atlantic mantas were described as a species of their own, Mobula yarae, whose range takes in the Caribbean islands (Wikipedia); no source yet says which manta visits Tobago, so the name on this card is the oceanic manta’s, the one Tobago’s mantas have been called.

Key marks: A huge, flat, diamond-shaped ray; the Atlantic manta reaches an estimated 5–6 m across (Wikipedia), and Tobago mantas “topping 4 m” are reported (BBC Wildlife).

At Tobago: Around Little Tobago and off Speyside (BBC Wildlife): the Sisters is called the best place to see them (DAN Alert Diver; Scuba Diving), and mantas have been met at Mount Irvine (Scuba Diving; DAN Alert Diver) and Flying Reef (Scuba Diving). Sources disagree on the season: a local guide says they pass through all year (Divernet); others give January–May (DAN Alert Diver) or March–May (Undercurrent 2014).

Wikipedia (Atlantic manta) · Wikipedia (oceanic manta) · iNaturalist

With a manta

Stay low and still and let the manta choose how close to come; don’t chase it or touch it.

Big fish

Rays, tarpon, barracuda and sharks

From the reefs to the pinnacles

Reef sharks are seen patrolling in the distance at Speyside (DAN Alert Diver), and a large reef shark was found sleeping under a ledge off Crown Point (Scuba Diving). Black jacks gather at Black Jack Hole, off Little Tobago, from May to July (Scuba Diving). Whale sharks are mentioned only as a lucky sighting (Discover T&T).

Spotted eagle ray Aetobatus narinari

Endangered on the IUCN Red List (FishBase).

Key marks: A duck-bill snout, white spots on a black or bluish back, and a long whip-like tail with spines near its base (FishBase).

At Tobago: “Squadrons” seen at Mount Irvine Extension (DAN Alert Diver); also Kariwak Reef (DIVE magazine).

FishBase · Wikipedia · iNaturalist · Photos (Commons)

Southern stingray Hypanus americanus

Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List (FishBase).

Key marks: A diamond-shaped disc with sharp corners, plain dark brown, grey or olive on top and white below; no fin fold on the tail (FishBase).

At Tobago: Kariwak Reef, with electric rays (DeeperBlue); Cardinal Rocks (DIVE magazine).

FishBase · Wikipedia · iNaturalist · Photos (Commons)

Atlantic tarpon Megalops atlanticus

Grows to 2.5 m. Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (FishBase).

Key marks: Large, coin-like silver scales, a jutting lower jaw, big eyes and a long thread on the last ray of the dorsal fin (FishBase).

At Tobago: Tarpon of about 1–1.5 m (3–5 ft) patrol the surge zone at Bookends, off Little Tobago (Scuba Diving; Scuba Diving); one diver counted five (Scuba Diving).

FishBase · Wikipedia · iNaturalist · Photos (Commons)

Great barracuda Sphyraena barracuda

Key marks: Long and silvery, with slanting dark bars on the upper half, scattered blotches on the side and a black tail with white tips (FishBase).

At Tobago: Large barracuda at Kelleston Drain (DeeperBlue). Its smaller relative the southern sennet waits in the current at Speyside (Scuba Diving; Scuba Diving).

FishBase · Wikipedia · iNaturalist · Photos (Commons)

Nurse shark Ginglymostoma cirratum

Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (FishBase).

Key marks: Barbels between the nostrils, two broadly rounded dorsal fins set far back, yellow-brown to grey-brown (FishBase).

At Tobago: Sleeps under overhangs by day: at Kamikaze Cut in Japanese Gardens (Divernet) and on the sand under the overhangs at London Bridge (DAN Alert Diver).

FishBase · Wikipedia · iNaturalist

Scalloped hammerhead Sphyrna lewini

Key marks: The head is flattened into a hammer with a scalloped front edge: a notch in the middle and a shallow scallop either side of it. Eyes at the very tips. Tall, strongly curved first dorsal fin and a small second dorsal. Bronze-grey above, pale below. In open water you usually get the silhouette from below before any colour, so go by the shape of the head.

At Tobago: At the Sisters, five pinnacles about two miles off the north coast, divers “regularly encounter” scalloped and great hammerheads (Scuba Diving); DAN names scalloped and golden hammerheads there (DAN Alert Diver). One source gives December–March as the best months (Scuba Diving), another October–May (Tropical Sky).

FishBase · Wikipedia · iNaturalist

Mammals

Dolphins and whales

Off the north-east

Atlantic spotted dolphin Stenella frontalis

At Tobago: A group seen off Charlotteville was the largest with this species recorded for either Trinidad or Tobago (Living World 2014).

Wikipedia · iNaturalist · Photos (Commons)

Common bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus

At Tobago: One of the cetaceans recorded in Trinidad and Tobago waters (Wikipedia).

Wikipedia · iNaturalist

Nineteen cetacean species have been recorded in Trinidad and Tobago waters (Wikipedia). A study of humpback whale movements covered the eastern Caribbean from Antigua south to Trinidad and Tobago (Stevick et al. 2018), and whales may be seen at the Sisters depending on the time of year (DeeperBlue). Humpbacks were hunted from Trinidad in the 1800s, but no organised shore whaling was found in Tobago (Reeves et al. 2001).

Credits

Photo credits

Where the photos come from

The nurse shark and the background were photographed by Megan Applegate at Tobago in November 2024. The manta and the dolphin are her photos from Socorro, Mexico, and the hammerhead hers from Cocos Island, Costa Rica; the other animals link to photos online.

Photo credits.
Species	Photographer	Licence	Source
Nurse shark	Megan Applegate	© Megan Applegate, all rights reserved	Photographer's own photo, taken at Tobago, November 2024
Manta ray	Megan Applegate	© Megan Applegate, all rights reserved	Photographer's own photo, taken at Socorro, Mexico, December 2023
Scalloped hammerhead	Megan Applegate	© Megan Applegate, all rights reserved	Photographer's own photo, taken at Cocos Island, Costa Rica, August 2024
Common bottlenose dolphin	Megan Applegate	© Megan Applegate, all rights reserved	Photographer's own photo, taken at Socorro, Mexico, December 2023