The gill plates of the extremely intelligent fish – many species of which are already categorised as endangered – are sold across east Asia as remedies said to have ‘no basis in medical science’
Sri Lanka fishers don’t specifically target mobulids. Instead, the rays get entangled in gillnets used to catch yellowfin tuna, billfish and sailfish. Most Sri Lankans don’t eat them, though some add dried ray meat to curry; there’s little to no demand for the fresh meat.
This meant fishers used to release manta and devil rays back to the sea, but the lucrative gill plate trade has changed that. “Sometimes fishers used to cut off their heads and toss them out in the seas, because they thought that buyers wanted the meat,” says Daniel Fernando, the co-founder of the Blue Resources Trust, a non-profit marine research institution. “But traders didn’t want the meat. They wanted gill plates, which are in the head.
in February that 32% of households remained food-insecure. For fishery workers like Lakshan, gill plates bring much-needed income.