After viral video of giant manta ray capture, bipartisan Florida lawmakers want change

Max Chesnes, Tampa Bay Times on Sep 2, 2025

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Earlier this summer, a viral video ignited a wave of outrage across Florida: Five men capture and hoist a live giant manta ray from the waters offshore Panama City Beach and onto their boat.

Almost immediately, marine scientists, conservationists and the Florida public wanted accountability, wondering how a beloved and majestic animal – federally designated as a threatened species – could be taken from its wild habitat.

Now, after Florida’s wildlife agency confirmed that it issued a special license to capture the ray for SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, a bipartisan coalition of state and federal Florida lawmakers is calling for a change.

In a letter Friday, members of Congress and the Florida House and Senate urged sweeping action from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which granted the permit.

Not only do they want the agency to revoke the permit that allowed the manta ray to be caught, they also want to suspend any future “Marine Special Activity Licenses” that green-light the capture of endangered species.

The lawmakers also urge the agency to engage with independent scientists to assess the health of the state’s protected marine species, and commit to creating new rules to prohibit the capture of endangered species.

“It is particularly troubling that this license was granted absent public input, and in a manner inconsistent with Florida’s own legacy of marine conservation,” the Republican and Democratic lawmakers wrote in their letter.

“Additionally, the lack of accountability for contractors, transporters, or aquariums to report on the health and status of an animal once removed from the wild constitutes a grave lack of oversight and concern for the animal’s long-term well being.”

The two-page letter was signed by U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, a Stuart Republican, and state House representatives Lindsay Cross, a Democrat from St. Petersburg, Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a Highland Beach Republican and Meg Weinberger, a Republican from Palm Beach Gardens. Also signing on was state Sen. Jason Pizzo, who in April switched from Democrat to no-party affiliation.

In their letter, the lawmakers said that Florida is the only state that allows for the live removal of animals listed under the federal Endangered Species Act for commercial and entertainment purposes. They also cited leading marine scientists who say that giant manta rays aren’t meant for captivity and die at high rates when in enclosed environments.

In July, a spokesperson for the wildlife agency, Shannon Knowles, confirmed to the Tampa Bay Times that it issued the license that waives fisheries regulations, but she did not immediately provide a list of all wildlife that has been captured under the program over the past two decades.

The Orlando Sentinel has since reported that the aquarium supplier company that was issued the permit, Dynasty Marine Associates, caught two additional manta rays for Sea World Abu Dhabi in 2023, and one was euthanized after its health declined in a Florida Keys holding tank.

The lawmakers are also asking the state wildlife agency to release all public records about how it issued the permit for Dynasty Marine Associates and questioned whether exporting a threatened manta ray to a foreign nation is aligned with the agency’s mission “where natural resources are valued and safely enjoyed by all.”

On Tuesday morning, Knowles said she had received the Times’ request for comment on the lawmakers’ letter, but did not immediately provide a statement.

Denis Richard, a dolphin tour boat operator, witnessed the manta ray’s capture on July 12 while one of his crew members filmed it, the Sentinel reported.

“Let him go,” yelled Richard, the founder and CEO of the Water Planet USA dolphin tour company. “You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”

Florida waters are home to a large group of migrating adult manta rays and a rare nursey habitat, according to the Florida Manta Project, a research project dedicated to studying the species since 2016.

Mantas are often entangled in fishing line and, similar to slow-moving manatees, can be struck by boat propellers. A survey of anglers say most entanglements are accidental, and the research project has worked to educate fishers on ways to avoid hooking the species.

Cross said it was difficult to watch the video of the manta ray being captured.

“One moment it’s in this beautiful body of water, and the next it’s being hauled onto a boat. That seems like a traumatic experience for an animal,” she told the Times Tuesday morning.

Cross said she wants the wildlife agency to discuss the incident at its November commission meeting and revise their process in the future.

“It’s just so hard to see an animal go through that,” Cross said. “There’s a big difference between taking a living species to help with its restoration and something that’s going to benefit a for-profit corporation.”

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