Belonging to the genus Mobula of the family Mobulidae, two species of manta ray have been recorded in Taiwan: the Oceanic manta ray (Mobula birostris) and the Reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi). They are found primarily in the Pacific waters off Taiwan's eastern coast, though Taiwanese fishermen working in the Taiwan Strait and the waters around the Northern Three Islands have also had chance encounters with them sunbathing on the surface.
Wow — Can Manta Rays Do Acrobatics?
Not exactly! A manta ray's backflip is actually a unique feeding behavior. Rather than charging headlong at prey (their main diet being plankton), they much prefer to somersault their way through a meal!
Photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash
Are Fishing Bans and Total Boycotts of Aquariums Really Absolute?
Fish don't breed like humans do — 365 days a year, whenever the mood strikes. Beyond reaching sexual maturity, fish typically need exactly the right environmental conditions before they will reproduce, which is precisely what makes aquaculture so challenging. In Japan, most aquariums carry a mission that goes well beyond profit and public education: they bear the weighty responsibility of scientific research. Through industry-academia partnerships, they gradually unravel the ocean's secrets in search of a path toward sustainable coexistence. It is within this framework that aquariums have been able to create environments where manta rays feel safe enough to mate and successfully give birth.
Japan's Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium has fully documented the manta rays in its care — from courtship and pregnancy through to birth — making a truly significant contribution to the foundational biology of fisheries science and deepening our understanding of the species' ecology and behavior.
How can you truly fall in love with something you don't know?
All of this scientific research exists so that, should the day come when human intervention for population recovery is genuinely needed, there will be a solid scientific foundation to draw upon — allowing for precisely targeted, effective action. In Japan, manta rays are not subject to a fishing ban, and on Ishigaki Island — right next door to Okinawa — there are even dive trips where you can encounter them.
Looking at Taiwan: Trying to Understand Taiwanese Fisheries Policy and the Fishermen's Perspective
A memory from that summer of 2016 — a fisherman's chance encounter with a manta ray out at sea.
It was a clear, sunny day, much like any other, as he steered his boat out toward the promise of a good catch. He followed his usual routine, sorting through the fishing rigs and dropping the baited lines down into the fathomless ocean below. With a push and pull of the throttle and a sweeping turn, the fishing vessel came to rest above the fishing grounds.
The captain introduced us to these waters: "This is the Northern Three Islands — Pengjia Islet, Mianhua Islet, Huaping Islet. The best fishing grounds in northern Taiwan."
In the distance, a massive dark shape slowly drifted toward the boat. Perhaps we were the only foreign object in all that open sea? Eclipsing the tugs and bites at the end of the fishing rods, the creature's enormous body drew every fisherman's gaze, and without a word being exchanged, everyone reached for their phones to snap a few photos. The giant beat its great wings, gliding on the current, and slowly circled alongside the boat — as if sizing something up. Perhaps its curiosity was satisfied, for it drifted off again with the wind and the tide.
We asked the captain: "Have you ever thought about switching to taking tourists out to see manta rays?"
The captain replied: "Even if I won the jackpot lottery, I wouldn't do it!" "I'd never seen one before, and I've never seen one since. In all my decades at sea, that was the only time…"
"I always thought you could only run into them off Hualien!" the captain muttered — a man from a long line of seafarers.
The captain lamented: "What I want to catch is sailfish, tuna, and Spanish mackerel!"
Watching a wide stretch of buoys suddenly sink beneath the surface, he thought he'd struck gold. But when the answer finally broke the surface, it was the enormous body of a manta ray. With everyone working together, they eventually hauled the manta ray aboard. The captain then hurriedly directed his crew to cut away the lines tangled around it, warning them to be careful not to get slapped by its wings.
"A light blow means bruises; a hard one means broken bones." Getting hit by one is no laughing matter. Manta rays don't have the lethal barb found on regular stingray tails, but a fish that can easily weigh over 100 kg — if those powerful, thick wings connect with you, it can be fatal.
Manta ray: "I was absolutely terrified!" A manta ray accidentally hauled aboard will use every ounce of its strength to fight back, thrashing its massive wings against anything and anyone that comes near — even the fishermen trying to release it back into the ocean. After all, no one has yet figured out how to communicate with a manta ray.
Photo by Constança Rodrigues on Unsplash
"Saving a manta ray won't earn you any applause."
When sea conditions allow, a fisherman might keep his cool and find the least harmful way to free it and return it to the ocean. But in most cases — just as with an accidentally caught shark — the standard response is to beat it unconscious or kill it first, and deal with it afterward. At sea, safety is the one truth that never changes.
According to bycatch reporting data for manta ray species, the fishing gear most commonly involved in manta ray bycatch is drift gillnets. Yet when a manta ray is accidentally caught, it is rarely the net itself that snares it — more often it becomes entangled in the ropes connecting the net panels or the buoy lines. This peculiar mode of bycatch left the captain completely baffled.
"Would you believe it?" the captain said. "Honestly, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it either!" He recounted one occasion when he finally spotted a manta ray out at sea and, out of curiosity, tossed a cable toward it. The thick cable bobbed up and down in the waves beside the manta ray. Whether it was the sound or the bubbles, the manta ray seemed to mistake the cable for food nearby and launched into its backflip routine — one loop, two loops, three loops — and in no time at all, had wrapped itself up completely. Startled, the captain hauled the cable back in and quickly cut away the lines tangled around the manta ray.
We naively asked: "Wouldn't it be easier to just bring it back and sell it?"
The captain shot back with a look of irritation: "Do you think there's unlimited space in the ice hold? Do you think a dead manta ray is worth much? And don't be fooled by the size — one of those things weighing several hundred jin might only fetch a little over NT$1,000. Not NT$1,000 per jin — the whole fish, weighing several hundred jin, is worth just over NT$1 per jin!" "And you still have to file a report? The act of bringing it back alone makes you a complete fool!"
In the period before the current comprehensive fishing ban was implemented, in order to establish a scientific basis for managing manta ray populations, any caught manta ray had to be reported by law, and the intact carcass had to be retained for 24 hours so that staff from a government-designated academic institution could come and collect samples — only then could the carcass be auctioned and used. Like all cartilaginous fish, manta rays share the common problem of producing a strong ammonia odor as freshness deteriorates. On top of that, among ray species, manta ray flesh is considered some of the least palatable. A dead manta ray holds virtually no economic value beyond academic research purposes.
Unless a fisherman had gone the entire day without a single catch — an empty hold — and happened to accidentally catch one, tempted by that NT$1,000-odd to buy some cigarettes and alcohol, there is simply no fisherman who would actively try to catch a manta ray.
"In the eyes of seafarers, a manta ray is worth absolutely nothing."
Header photo credit: Photo by Max Gotts on Unsplash
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