Species profile
Mobula birostris
Giant manta ray
EN · Endangered — Endangered — very high risk of extinction in the wild
About this species
Giant manta ray (Mobula birostris) is part of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue and is classified as Endangered. The giant oceanic manta has the largest brain of any fish, and its wing-like fins can span seven metres. Its recorded population direction is decreasing, so the category needs to be read alongside continuing losses of individuals or local populations.
Habitat, behaviour and ecological role
This profile associates the species with marine, pelagic. These labels summarise environments used during different stages of its life rather than drawing an exact range boundary. Mantas visit cleaning stations on reefs, where small fish pick parasites off their skin — and they appear to recognise individual reefs and return for years. Its anatomy and behaviour are responses to those environments, while movement can connect distant places requiring different forms of management.
Why this species is at risk
Each manta's belly spot pattern is unique, like a fingerprint, allowing divers and scientists to identify individuals worldwide. The catalogue records 2 principal pressures for this profile: Gill-plate trade, Bycatch. They should not be treated as isolated causes. Habitat change, exploitation, pollution, disease and climate stress can reinforce one another, while the importance of each pressure varies between regions and through time.
Conservation outlook
Fishery management needs enforceable limits, more selective gear, bycatch reduction and coordinated compliance across jurisdictions. Direct protection needs to combine enforcement with conflict prevention, demand reduction and local benefits that make coexistence viable. Actions need long-term monitoring and revision as evidence changes; a positive intervention in one place does not by itself represent recovery across the species.
Editorial review: 2026-08-21
Threat factors
Known occurrences
Dots are georeferenced occurrence records from OBIS (marine) and GBIF (global), not individual animals and not a complete range map. Up to 500 recent API results are cached; the profile renders at most 500 points.
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