Manta rays are among the most intelligent and long-lived of all fish, facing severe population declines from targeted fishing for gill plates used in traditional medicine and incidental bycatch in commercial fisheries.
Manta ray welfare intersects important questions about fish sentience and the particular moral consideration owed to animals demonstrating cognitive capacities such as self-recognition. The evidence for manta ray intelligence is compelling and suggests a level of cognitive complexity that makes their suffering in fishing and bycatch morally significant beyond the typical treatment of fish in conservation discourse. Manta rays caught in gillnets or on longlines experience acute distress, struggling against entanglement in ways that suggest awareness of their predicament. The targeting of manta rays for their gill plates, which are dried and sold despite lacking demonstrated medicinal value, represents a welfare harm of significant scale driven by demand for a product that provides no real benefit to human health. Protecting manta ray populations through fishing restrictions, trade controls, and consumer education about the lack of medicinal value of gill plates addresses both welfare and conservation simultaneously.