Manta rays are among the most intelligent and long-lived of elasmobranch species. Their welfare is threatened by fisheries bycatch, gill raker trade, and tourism interactions that cause stress and injury.
Manta ray welfare sits at the convergence of exceptional animal cognition and conservation emergency. These are cognitively sophisticated animals — self-aware by the mirror test, socially complex, long-lived — whose welfare in wild encounters, bycatch situations, and entanglement events deserves serious ethical consideration. The gill raker trade causes targeted killing for a product with no scientifically validated medical benefit. Bycatch entanglement causes drowning and injury that are particularly welfare-significant given manta longevity — a single injured manta that survives may live with its injury for decades. Conservation and welfare interventions align closely: protecting manta rays from trade and bycatch addresses both concerns simultaneously.