Manta rays face increasing threats from targeted fishing for gill plates used in traditional medicine, bycatch in commercial fisheries, and boat strikes, causing painful deaths and population declines across their global range.
Manta rays killed for gill plates suffer acutely — they are large, long-lived animals with complex nervous systems and behavioral evidence suggesting capacity for pain and fear. Research demonstrating manta ray self-recognition in mirrors places them among the cognitively most sophisticated fish species, making their welfare particularly significant. Bycatch entanglement in nets causes drowning stress and physical injury. Boat strikes, increasingly common as ocean traffic increases, cause trauma injuries that may not be immediately fatal but lead to prolonged suffering. The combination of slow reproduction and targeted killing places manta ray populations under significant pressure.