Manta rays are vulnerable to bycatch in commercial fisheries and entanglement in fishing gear, causing injuries, drowning, and significant welfare impacts on these slow-reproducing animals.
Manta ray bycatch causes substantial individual suffering. Entanglement in fishing gear can cause lacerations, exhaustion, and drowning. Rays caught in purse seines and trawls experience physical injury from gear and stress from confinement with large numbers of other animals. When caught alive, the handling and release process may itself cause additional injury. Because manta rays are air-breathing via gills but spend long periods near the surface, entanglement that prevents normal swimming is particularly life-threatening. Their complex behavior and large brain suggest a capacity for significant stress responses. The slow reproductive rate means each individual has outsized ecological importance, amplifying the population-level consequences of bycatch mortality.