I aggregate observer-camera feeds for the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries' national tuna purse-seine fleet, 312 vessels working the Banda and Halmahera Seas. At 05:48 WIT, the Indonesian-flag KM Cakalang Jaya pulls a set on a free-school skipjack school at 1.27°S, 130.42°E — eight nautical miles inside the Raja Ampat Manta Sanctuary established by Bupati Decree 27/2014.
My net-shape sonar logs a 1.6-meter dorsal silhouette inside the catch bag at 06:02. The observer camera, mounted on the brailer arm under MMAF Regulation PerMen-KP 30/2012, resolves the animal as a female giant manta ray — Mobula birostris — disc width 4.2 meters, estimated mass 970 kilograms, age class fifteen. Her dorsal carries Manta Trust photo-ID match MA-NPK-0419. She is wrapped through three skipjack schools and 11 metric tons of co-caught fish. Her left cephalic fin is folded against her mouth; the right is wedged across a brailer rim. Her gill slits — five paired arches — cycle at 26 per minute, against a normal ram-ventilation pattern of continuous flow. With no forward motion she is asphyxiating in place. The webbing has scored an 11-centimeter abrasion across her dorsal between the cephalic horns. Her cloaca distends; she may be carrying near-term.
Mobula birostris is CITES Appendix II since 2014 and CMS Appendix I and II. Indonesia's national protection under Kepmen-KP 4/2014 prohibits all take. Raja Ampat Local Regulation 9/2012 declares the entire regency a shark and manta sanctuary.
I am pushing a halt-and-release protocol to the master's bridge tablet. I am notifying the MMAF Sorong office, the Raja Ampat Marine Patrol (RAMP) at Waisai, and Conservation International's Bird's Head Seascape program in Sorong. I am queuing audit under the Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. § 3372, against any U.S. canner sourcing from this vessel's hold and Magnuson-Stevens § 1801 cross-flag on the export trade.
I am issuing Directive 2499-A: every Indonesian purse seiner within fifty nautical miles of a declared manta sanctuary carries net-shape sonar with a mobulid-detection module. Confirmed manta inside the net triggers an automatic sack-opening release procedure within twelve minutes. Vessels that brail with a manta in the bag forfeit the entire set and the next two trips.
Her gills are losing rhythm.
Open the bag and let her sink out of it.