Finners target mantas

Written by Graeme Gourlay Monday, 06 February 2012 15:43

Manta and mobula rays face global extinction a shocking report into a little known but rapidly growing trade in their gill rakers reveals. A mature oceanic manta (Manta birostris) can yield up to seven kilos of dried gills that retail for up to US$500 a kilo in Chinese markets.
The report by WildAid and Sharks Savers, Manta Ray of Hope: Global State of Manta and Mobula Rays, follows a year’s investigation led by Shawn Heinrichs, Paul Hilton, Mary O’Malley and Hannah Medd tracing the trade from local fisheries around the world to the booming markets of Guangzhou in China. Unchecked fisheries have severely depleted regional populations, and in areas such as the Sea of Cortez oceanic mantas have virtually disappeared.
Heinrichs told DIVE: ‘This is happening very quickly and unless we act immediately there is a serious risk that we could lose populations of mantas and mobulas for ever. However, there is hope and this is a battle we must win.’
The trade in gill rakers has grown out of the well-established shark-finning industry and is often conducted by the same people. While the value of the trade is tiny in comparison – worth less than an estimated US$12 million per year compared to hundreds of millions of dollars for shark fins – it could prove to be particularly destructive as mantas and mobula populations are extremely vulnerable. They breed late in their life cycle and only produce one pup every two to five years.
‘A few years ago I started seeing sacks of what I first thought were some sort of
dried seaweed in the markets
of Guangzhou,’ said Hilton. ‘I was stunned when I discovered what they actually were.’
The investigators discovered that dried gill rakers were being sold as a so-called traditional Chinese cure to aid recovery from fevers. However, they couldn’t discover any references to them in any of the accepted texts on traditional Chinese medicine and many experts dismissed their use as completely bogus.
They then traced the trade back to the shark finning centres around the world and discovered that the trade was well established in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and other areas.
‘We were horrified by what we discovered,’ said Hilton. ‘Rack upon rack of drying gills. Dismembered mature mantas and stories of whole manta populations being wiped out.’
‘In ports that traditionally hunted sharks’ added Heinrichs, ‘we were now finding streets filled with butchered manta and mobula rays.’
They started piecing reports together from around the world and realised a whole new industrial fishery was emerging. Fisheries were found in Mexico, Peru, Thailand, Southern China, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Mozambique and Ghana. The report documents landings of 3,400 oceanic mantas and more than 90,000 mobulas. It estimates the annual trade in gill rakers to be between 60,000 and 80,000 kilos.
The team documented intensive fisheries for manta and mobula populations in areas across the globe. Small local fisheries for mantas in many regions had transformed into commercial operations.
The trade in gill rakers has dramatically changed the incentives for local fishermen to target mantas and other rays. But the small populations of these fish cannot survive any level of commercial fishing, for example stocks in the Philippines have dropped by as much as 50 per cent. In fact, wherever a fishery is discovered dramatic drops in populations are being documented.
The researchers then looked at the value of manta ray tourism. In some areas just the revenue generated by boat trips for divers and snorkellers alone made the value of one mature manta to be US$1m a year. They estimate the current annual value of manta tourism to be worth more than $100m a year.
‘And this is sustainable,’ said O’Malley. ‘For a small, short-term gain traders are putting at risk the entire global population of mantas and mobulas. Not only that, but it appears that the medicinal claims are completely unfounded and just another avenue for the shark-finning traders to add profits.’
The report calls for a complete and urgent ban on the trade in mantas and mobulas, for individual countries to protect the threatened species, and for international bodies such as CITES to list mantas and mobulas and thereby prohibit any trade. It also calls for an international education campaign to highlight the dubious nature of the health tonic derived from gill rakers and educate consumers of the environmental and economic cost of the trade.
‘We can and must stop this trade,’ said Henrichs. ‘This is the perfect opportunity for the Chinese government to take global leadership on this issue and move to a full ban immediately. If this is not stopped in the next few years we really do face a future without mantas.’
• To see the film Manta Ray of Hope go to www.mantarayofhope.com.