Rekha Maldeniya, a marine fish expert who works for the National Aquatic Research and Development Agency (NARA). Most of the time mantas are a bycatch of gill nets, says Dr. Fishermen say they rarely catch large mantas in our waters any more.”ĭaniel Fernando works for the Sri Lanka Manta Project (Manta Trust) and collects manta ray landings data for his research. Manta rays in our waters are already in decline. The remaining mature rays cannot breed fast enough to replace those lost to fishing. “Any target fishing that annually removes even a relatively small percentage of the breeding adults results in a rapid decline in overall populations within a few years. “Manta ray populations simply cannot survive the current level of commercial fishing,” says manta expert Daniel Fernando. Young mantas take between 10 and 15 years to reach sexual maturity.
The animal, which can live to 50 years (some are known to have lived to 100 years), has a gestation period of more than a year and gives birth to just one single pup. Manta rays are slow breeders with long lives. The delicate gill filaments also play a role in the manta ray’s breathing system. The manta ray uses its cartilaginous gill plates to filter the plankton that it lives on. A kilogram can fetch between Rs.15,000 and Rs. Dried gill plates are widely used in Chinese traditional medicine. Known locally as “Ali Maduwa”, the creature is hunted primarily for its gill plates, which are extracted, dried and exported. The Giant Oceanic Manta Ray was a common catch a decade ago, but the creature is steadily becoming less common. Both sea creatures have been identified as Giant Oceanic Manta Rays, the largest member of the ray family. A week earlier, another manta ray was caught by fishermen in Akkaraipattu, on the East coast. The ocean creature was pregnant and weighed 1,500 kilograms. Overfishing threatens the magnificent and prized ‘Ali Maduwa’, writes Malaka Rodrigo.Ī giant “maduwa”, or manta ray, was netted last week by fisherman in Welipatanwila, Ambalanthota, on the South coast.
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