Perreault Magazine - 71 -
Listed by the IUCN as ‘Vulnerable’, the primary threat to the Manta species is unsustainable fisheries driven by a growing demand for their gills used in a medically unproven ‘health tonic’. New data showing their acute biological vulnerability and the rapid escalation of threats to their populations indicate an urgent priority to conserve manta rays and their close relatives, mobula rays.