Lesser Guinean devil ray

5/27/2019

FAO, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

The Lesser Guinean Devil Ray (Mobula rochebrunei) is found… nope, not in Papua New Guinea as many people may have guessed. This ray has actually been observed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, swimming around Mauritania to Angola and possibly even Brazil (there were only two records off Brazil).

In the Mobulidae family, they are an olive-like colour underwater and are similar to M. rochebrunei in that both are a target species and a utilized bycatch of fisheries operating in their range.

They are pretty average-sized for a ray species, reaching a maximum size of 133 cm disc width (DW) and are known to have only one pup. Not good at all! Why? Well, the IUCN has assessed them as Vulnerable (VU) due to the majority of their population being off of Africa, where there is high fishing pressure from both artisanal and foreign fleets. It doesn’t help that they are known to school, which means a lot of them could be captured at the same time! Doesn’t sound like a recipe for sustainable fisheries, huh?

Although no specific data are available on their population trends, it makes sense as to why they are assessed by the IUCN as Vulnerable. We wish them well as they swim elegantly through the ocean, eating up any and all plankton they find.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THIS ANIMAL?

GLOSSARY

Artisanal fishery: There is, as yet, no universally-accepted definition; the term is used interchangeably with ‘small scale fishery.’ In general, artisanal fishing will be family-based, employing small or no boats and simple and/or traditional methods.
Bycatch: The part of a fishery’s catch that is made up of non-target species.
Commercial fishery: The activity of catching fish and other seafood for profit.
Crustaceans: Group of animals with a hard exoskeleton, jointed legs and segmented body.
IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature.