History Made: All Manta and Devil Rays Win the World's Highest Trade Protection

Manta and devil rays are among the ocean's most magnificent animals — vast, gliding, intelligent filter-feeders that can span more than seven metres from wingtip to wingtip. They are also in deep trouble, hunted for their gill plates and caught accidentally in fisheries, with populations in many regions plunging by 80 to 99% within just one or two generations. In late November 2025, the world's governments answered with a landmark decision. As Oceanographic reported on November 28, parties to CITES — the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species — voted to grant all ten species of manta and devil rays Appendix I status, the strongest protection the treaty offers.

The significance is hard to overstate. Appendix I effectively bans all international commercial trade in a species and its parts. For mobula rays — the family that includes manta and devil rays — that closes the global market for their prized gill plates, which had driven much of the killing. Roughly 265,000 of these rays are caught each year across some 92 countries, and the previous safeguards under Appendix II, along with national laws in more than 40 countries, had proven too weak to stem the losses.

“They are also in deep trouble, hunted for their gill plates and caught accidentally in fisheries, with populations in many regions plunging by 80 to 99% within just one or two generations.”

What made the moment historic was not just the outcome but the unanimity behind it. The decision was adopted by consensus, with no country opposing it. "This is a momentous day for manta and devil rays, and the fact there was a consensus in the room shows that not only was the science clear, but that the world's countries are standing up for the survival of our natural heritage," said Nuno Barros of The Manta Trust.

Conservationists are clear-eyed that a treaty listing is a tool, not a finish line. Enforcement at ports and on the water will determine whether the ban truly protects rays, and accidental capture in fishing gear remains a threat that trade rules alone cannot solve. "While we celebrate this unprecedented step, our work is far from over," said the Manta Trust's Rebecca Carter. Even so, when the world's nations agree without dissent to shut down the trade driving a species toward extinction, it is a powerful sign — proof that the ocean's gentle giants now have the planet's strongest legal shield behind them.