Giant manta rays are highly intelligent, long-lived rays that face threats from gill raker trade, bycatch, and climate change. Individual welfare deserves more attention.
Manta rays caught in targeted gill raker fisheries experience prolonged distress during capture and are often landed alive, dying slowly. Bycatch in tuna purse seines causes drowning or physical injury from net entanglement. Boat strikes occur in shallow coastal areas where mantas feed. The cognitive sophistication demonstrated through mirror self-recognition and long-term site memory suggests these are individuals with ongoing life histories whose deaths represent genuine welfare loss beyond conservation statistics. Gill raker-based traditional medicine has no scientifically validated efficacy, making the welfare harm of manta ray fishing unjustified.