{"id":276744,"date":"2026-05-19T15:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/276744\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T15:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:43:10","slug":"a-win-for-giant-manta-rays-and-for-floridas-oceans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/276744\/","title":{"rendered":"A win for giant manta rays and for Florida\u2019s oceans\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Katherine Sayler, Defenders of Wildlife<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tremendous global pressure for their body parts.\u00a0Extinction\u00a0in many parts of their range. Very few live births. This\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0hyperbole \u2014 these are some of the\u00a0factors considered\u00a0when officials decide\u00a0in a \u201cRecord of Advice\u201d\u00a0whether to issue\u00a0a\u00a0permit to export a giant manta ray captured in Florida\u2019s\u00a0waters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite these\u00a0existential\u00a0threats,\u00a0in the past six years,\u00a0the\u00a0Florida\u00a0Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)<\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0granted\u00a0nearly 20\u00a0such\u00a0permits, even though the giant manta ray\u00a0has been\u00a0protected as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act\u00a0since 2018.<\/p>\n

\"AA giant manta ray (Lakshmi Sawitri, CC BY 2.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n

Giant mantra rays, called \u201cangels of the\u00a0sea,\u201d are majestic, diamond-shaped rays\u00a0whose\u00a0elegance\u00a0is surpassed\u00a0only\u00a0by\u00a0their\u00a0astonishing\u00a0size \u2014 up to 26 feet wide.\u00a0The global\u00a0population\u00a0pressures on these rays\u00a0who\u00a0glide and migrate through tropical waters are tremendous,\u00a0but\u00a0their protections from capture in Florida waters have been incomplete. The shortcomings\u00a0of\u00a0safeguards\u00a0to protect\u00a0them\u00a0off\u00a0our coasts\u00a0were\u00a0hidden from view \u2014 until\u00a0recently.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Florida is the only state that has\u00a0permitted\u00a0giant manta rays\u00a0to be\u00a0captured and exported\u00a0to aquariums abroad. Most permits since 2018\u00a0have been\u00a0granted for aquariums\u00a0such as the Rizhao Ocean Park in\u00a0China and\u00a0Seaworld in\u00a0the United Arab Emirates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FWC\u00a0has historically issued permits to allow\u00a0the capture of giant manta rays through an\u00a0\u201cexhibition and education marine special activity license.\u201d\u00a0As our state wildlife agency,\u00a0FWC\u00a0has the authority to\u00a0allow the removal of\u00a0giant\u00a0manta\u00a0rays\u00a0from\u00a0Florida\u2019s waters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Until last summer, the capture and export of rays from Florida\u2019s waters\u00a0went\u00a0largely\u00a0unnoticed.\u00a0Then\u00a0a\u00a0cellphone video taken by a dolphin tour operator, showing a\u00a0giant manta ray\u00a0being\u00a0hauled out of the water and\u00a0thrown onto the back of a boat, shocked the public<\/a>.\u00a0Advocates,\u00a0scientists\u00a0and our elected officials\u00a0sprang into action.<\/p>\n

Last week, the FWC\u00a0took historic action<\/a> by deciding not\u00a0to\u00a0provide these permits for\u00a0Endangered Species Act-listed threatened species\u00a0without a complete commission review and vote.\u00a0Importantly, individual animals may no\u00a0longer\u00a0be shipped\u00a0thousands of miles from Florida\u2019s waters\u00a0to an overseas aquarium.<\/p>\n

\"KatherineKatherine Sayler<\/p>\n

This\u00a0historic change could not come soon enough.\u00a0Worldwide, giant manta rays\u00a0are the victims of both accidental bycatch in fisheries gear and\u00a0intentional\u00a0targeting\u00a0for\u00a0their\u00a0valuable\u00a0gill plates. Demand for these\u00a0filtration structures near their mouths\u00a0for use\u00a0in\u00a0traditional Chinese\u00a0medicine\u00a0has soared\u00a0over the past several decades, even\u00a0though\u00a0neither science nor traditional Chinese medical texts support\u00a0the\u00a0health\u00a0claims for the\u00a0supposed benefits\u00a0of gill plates.\u00a0Overfishing is the main factor behind\u00a0the species\u2019\u00a02018\u00a0Endangered Species Act listing. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The FWC has\u00a0also taken the\u00a0important\u00a0step\u00a0of\u00a0recognizing that\u00a0Endangered Species Act-listed threatened\u00a0species\u00a0need\u00a0additional\u00a0strong agency and regulatory\u00a0support at the state level.\u00a0We applaud our state agency leaders\u00a0for paying attention to the public\u2019s voice\u00a0and working to close loopholes that\u00a0allow our\u00a0precious natural heritage to be diminished.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Floridians,\u00a0this\u00a0means\u00a0that\u00a0the marine wildlife we all love,\u00a0from manatees\u00a0and\u00a0sea turtles\u00a0to giant manta rays,\u00a0will\u00a0thrive in our\u00a0waters for generations to\u00a0come.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Katherine Sayler is the southeast representative at Defenders of Wildlife. She resides in Gainesville.\u00a0Banner photo: A giant manta ray (amanderson2, CC BY 2.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons).<\/p>\n

Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here<\/a>. If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Katherine Sayler, Defenders of Wildlife\u00a0 Tremendous global pressure for their body parts.\u00a0Extinction\u00a0in many parts of their range.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[63426,42824,28,16388,30,29,118158,118159],"class_list":["post-276744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-aquariums","tag-endangered-species-act","tag-florida","tag-florida-fish-and-wildlife-commission","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-fwc-permits","tag-giant-manta-ray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}