“Before, if one got stuck in the net, we’d grab it, stick a knife in it, then tie it on to the boat and take it to the shore,” he says, his hand on Pollito’s tiller. Despite his efforts to land it, he was paid around 200 Peruvians soles (£47) for the meat, which is not highly prized. It was so heavy a crane was needed to lift it on to the shore. He once caught a giant manta ray weighing one-and-half tonnes, he says.

His diesel-engined wooden craft, christened Pollito, chugs through the opalescent waters as he scans the horizon for signs of fish. They’re happy to mention it to their peers.”Įdgardo Cruz, 50, has been fishing these rich waters since he was 15. “Now if the manta ray gets entangled in their nets, fishermen start releasing them and report on it excitedly. Before, they didn’t even notice that they existed,” Forsberg says. “People here now get excited about giant manta rays. They have the largest brain of all fish species. Giant mantas pass the mirror self-recognition test developed by scientists as a way to determine whether a non-human animal has the ability to recognise itself. Manta rays can live for up to 40 years, but little is known about their growth and development. They typically only produce a single pup every five years or so. Fortunately, the popularity of the species with scuba divers and other tourists makes them worth more alive than dead. They are vulnerable to getting tangled in fishing nets and are sometimes purposefully targeted for their gills, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine. The number of giant rays has declined by up to a third. They swim solo, but are known to socialise. Mantas are generally solitary creatures, but aggregate to feed and mate suggesting complex social interactions. Despite their size, giant mantas eat microscopic organisms, sometimes performing 'barrel rolls' when feeding to maximise food intake. Most grow to a more modest 4-5 metres wide. They can reach widths of 9m. As the name suggests, giant mantas are the largest of species of ray.

Giant manta ray inform