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Underwater photographer Kristian Laine photographed a vividly pink reef manta ray while freediving near Lady Elliot Island on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Known to researchers as Inspector Clouseau, the male’s unusual coloring is real; a pigment-related mutation is the leading explanation, but researchers have not confirmed its cause.
The encounter that revealed a pink manta
Laine was freediving near Lady Elliot Island in 2020 when he saw a bright pink manta among a group of male rays. At first, he suspected a problem with his camera or strobes. “I had no idea there were pink mantas in the world, so I was confused and thought my strobes were broken or doing something weird,” he told National Geographic on February 11, 2020.
After learning researchers already knew the animal, Laine understood that he had photographed an especially unusual individual. National Geographic described the male as about 11 feet long. At the time of that report, he had been seen fewer than 10 times since his first recorded sighting in 2015. Those are figures reported in 2020, not a current length estimate or sighting count.
Who is Inspector Clouseau?
The manta is named Inspector Clouseau after the detective in the Pink Panther stories. Project Manta, a research program that identifies individual rays from photographs, recorded him as individual #900 in its east-coast photo-identification database, according to Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort’s February 24, 2020 account.
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That account says the ray was first recorded near Lady Elliot Island in 2015. The resort’s Project Manta overview, accessed October 4, 2026, reports that the project has identified 1,700 manta rays across Australia’s east coast, including 1,275 around Lady Elliot Island. The page also reports 14 satellite-tagged rays between 2021 and 2024; these are project counts presented by the resort, not figures attributed there to a dated scientific paper.
What researchers know about his pink color
Researchers have reported that the pink coloration is genuine, not simply an effect of lighting or a camera setting. A small skin biopsy taken from the ray’s underside in 2016 was reported as consistent with reef mantas of ordinary color morphology. The unusual appearance was also observed across repeat sightings. The resort’s account describes the biopsy and observations, while ABC News Australia’s February 25, 2020 report attributes the investigation to Project Manta researchers.
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Project Manta head scientist Dr. Kathy Townsend said the team suspected a change in the skin’s pigments: “We suspect it probably is a mutation in the pigments of the skin,” she told ABC. She explained the idea this way: “He’s got black colour pigment.” “It’s just something has gone on with his white colour pigment.”
A pigment-related mutation is a hypothesis, not a confirmed diagnosis. The reported biopsy and repeated observations helped researchers reject infection and diet as explanations; prominent surface blood vessels were also considered but were not supported by the reported evidence. These findings narrow the possibilities without establishing exactly what biological change produces the pink appearance.
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Could other mantas inherit the trait?
Researchers have not established whether the coloring could be inherited. Townsend said the team would monitor for other pink rays: “We will most certainly be keeping an eye out [for] if there are any other pink mantas in future,” ABC reported. That is a plan to watch for similar animals, not evidence that Inspector Clouseau has passed on the trait.
The ABC report from November 4, 2015 documents an early sighting near Lady Elliot Island. The detailed discussion of the proposed pigment mechanism in the available reporting came later, in 2020; no newer confirmation of the cause or current sighting total is established here.
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