Adding a Manta Sighting using the Web interface (http://mprf.net/identification/report-a-sighting.html) is similar to the iOS App, but it is less powerful and more simplified. Each report is an "Excursion" underwater. During that Excursion, you may have seen 1 or more individual mantas.
There are a couple of "required" pieces of information needed to submit a sighting, and the rest are optional. Required fields are marked with a red asterisk. We are interested in receiving sighting reports state wide. Please select what area/island of the state your report is from. Although we do not maintain a catalog of rays outside the Big Island, we work with the other organizations that do and will forward your information appropriately.
We need both your First and Last name for proper credit, and an email address we can contact you at to be able to follow up with you on your report.
The Start and End Date/Time are Required. The date and time of the excursion should be approximately the entire time that you were in the water looking around. If you were in and out of the water multiple times, you should probably enter multiple sighting reports.
The plankton and water temperature fields are optional. We would like to know the number of people and boats that were present when the manta was seen, but they are also optional.
The total number of mantas seen is required. (You may enter '0' if you are at a site that you would normally expect to see mantas). If you are not looking for help identifying a manta, you do not need to upload any photos and can just enter the total number seen.
If you would like help identifying which mantas you saw, you can upload 1 or more images of the individuals. Click Choose Files to upload the initial photo, then click "Add Another Photo" to upload subsequent ones. We are only interested in jpeg or png images and not video. In order to be able to identify it, we need a good image of the ventral or belly side showing the unique spot patterns of the manta. Here is a description of what a good ID photo looks like.
If you have reviewed the catalog and have already identified which manta(s) you saw - Yay! And Thank you! You can let us know by clicking in the "Add manta names" field and then start typing the name of the manta. A list will show up underneath and you can just click on the correct name. A small bubble tag will show up underneath the field, and then you can start entering a name again. Keep going for all the mantas you were able to identify. You don't need to have identified them all. If you need to remove one, just click the 'x' in the bubble tag.
Where
The other required piece of information for a sighting report is the GPS location. You can start by entering the common name for the site you were in the water in the "Place Name" field.
You also need to click on the location in the map to give us the GPS coordinates. You can move the map around and zoom in and out in order to find the right location. We suggest zooming in as much as possible in order to be as specific as possible. The more accurate you are in selecting the location, the better the data for our analysis. If you are not sure where you were, we can use the Place Name above to verify the point selected on the map. You can continue to click on the map and place the pin as many times as you need to as you try to get more accurate.
The Comments field is where you can add any additional information or questions you may have. It's a free form text field and you can put as much as you want in there. We are interested in learning about any particular behaviors you witnessed, and or any injuries or aspect about the manta you saw.
Once you are ready, click the 'Submit' button. If there is any missing information, you'll see a message at the top of the page. If submitted successfully, you will receive an email with a summary of all of the information you just entered.