Welfare and conservation of manta rays, examining bycatch impacts, gill plate trade driving illegal harvesting, tourism disturbance, and the welfare of these large, intelligent elasmobranchs.
Manta ray welfare intersects conservation, intelligence, and economics in ways that create both strong welfare concerns and strong protection incentives. As fish with the largest brain relative to body size and evidence of self-recognition, mantas have clear welfare status that commands greater moral consideration than simpler fish species. Their capture in gill nets causes entanglement suffering; their harvest for gill plates causes death in a species that may have rich cognitive experiences. The economic argument for manta conservation through sustainable tourism is compelling — living manta populations support lucrative dive tourism that dramatically outvalues the harvest. Protecting manta welfare requires eliminating the gill plate trade through demand reduction and enforcement, while protecting habitats and managing tourism to avoid behavioral disruption.