‘It’s not like chicken farming’: why manta rays are chopped up in Sri Lanka

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’

Every morning, starting at 3am, Lakshan hacks up manta rays. A wholesale buyer who plies his trade at Sri Lanka’s largest fish market, in the city of Negombo, just north of Colombo, he jostles with fishers offloading their catches. His business is primarily to find fresh tuna but he also buys 700kg (1,540lb) of manta and devil rays every day.

He doesn’t want the ray’s meat, which most Sri Lankans don’t eat. Instead, he’s after the gill plates: cartilage that helps manta and devil rays filter out microorganisms in ocean waters.

At sunrise in Negombo, the nightly fish market quietens down and fishers start to return home after many days at sea