Manta rays and their relatives are increasingly captured as bycatch in industrial fisheries, suffering prolonged stress and injury during entanglement and deck handling before death or release.
Manta rays experience significant welfare harms from entanglement and bycatch. Trapped in nets, their forward swimming motion — necessary for ram ventilation of their gills — is interrupted, causing progressive oxygen deprivation. Time spent on deck or in shallow water during release causes heat stress and physical injury from their own weight. The intelligence and apparent awareness of mantas raises the stakes of their suffering — cognitive sophistication generally correlates with capacity for distress. Post-release survival rates after deck handling are uncertain but likely lower than for less cognitively complex species. Manta sanctuary designations and fishery exclusion zones are the most effective welfare interventions.