Peru Moves to Protect Giant Manta Rays

[Still Waters]

The government of Peru has passed a resolution that bans fishing of giant manta rays in its waters and requires fishermen to release any accidentally caught mantas immediately back into the ocean. Peru joins a dozen other countries with manta protection laws, including its northern neighbor, Ecuador; between them, Peruvian and Ecuadorian waters hold the largest known population of the species in the world.

http://news.discover...#mkcpgn=rssnws1

[psyche101]

The government of Peru has passed a resolution that bans fishing of giant manta rays in its waters and requires fishermen to release any accidentally caught mantas immediately back into the ocean. Peru joins a dozen other countries with manta protection laws, including its northern neighbor, Ecuador; between them, Peruvian and Ecuadorian waters hold the largest known population of the species in the world.

http://news.discover...#mkcpgn=rssnws1

Thank goodness. I watched "Racing Extinction" over the Holidays and was shocked at the plight of the Manta Ray. A Small Indonesian village called Lamakera is the most productive hunting ground for Mantas to supply the Chinese Traditional Medicine Market.

What shocked and rather disgusted me was to find out this so called tradition is not even tradition. It is just a rumour that appeared in a Chinese government book called Animals in Chinese medicine, (around 2001 I think) it seems some overly paranoid person thought that seeming as gill rakers filter out plankton for food, they could be consumed and would then filter out impurities from the body.

This folklore became popular as the SARS outbreak hit China and scared the average person. Ever since, the demand for Gill Rakers has been on the increase.

It even tastes like crap I hear, so does Manta Meat, rather pungent by all reports.

A complete waste of life for no reason at all. Just stories and imagination. Sad that is. They are worth a packet, so the people keep slaughtering them. The team from racing extinction are trying to show these fishermen that whilst it might be beneficial in the here and now, tourism is sustainable, and their children will have an industry, if they continue to hunt them, their children may never even see a Manta. They seem interested, I hope they run with it.