Manta rays are targeted for their gill rakers in international trade, driving population declines and significant suffering in animals with complex cognitive abilities.
Manta rays are slow-swimming, predictable in movement, and often approach divers willingly - characteristics that make them exceptionally vulnerable to targeted hunting. Capture typically involves entanglement in nets, causing drowning stress, physical injury from handling, and death during transport or processing. Given their demonstrated cognitive sophistication, the welfare costs of manta ray hunting are significant. Legal protection and tourism-based conservation economics offer the most viable path to population recovery.