Relationship To Humans
Spiny butterfly rays are harmless to humans, though if stepped on its tail spine can cause a painful wound. It is listed as a game fish in some regions. The meat of this species is highly regarded and it is caught for human consumption, except for in the waters off the United States where it is not targeted by commercial fisheries and is rarely taken as bycatch. Thus, there it is assessed as of Least Concern by the World Conservation Union.
Elsewhere in the spiny butterfly ray's range, it faces heavy fishing pressure, including in its coastal nursery areas, and has experienced marked declines. It is assessed as Critically Endangered in the southwest Atlantic, where it is taken by multispecies trawls, beach-seines, and recreational fishers. Off southern Brazil, catch rates have declined by 99% since 1982, due to fishing occurring year-round. This species is also Critically Endangered in the Mediterranean, where it is now rare or absent throughout its entire former range, especially along the southern shore such as off Sicily. The comprehensive Mediterranean International Trawl Surveys (MITS) since 1994 have failed to recover any specimens, indicating a massive decline in numbers. In West Africa, this species is assessed as Vulnerable; it is taken intentionally or incidentally by gillnets, shrimp trawls, longlines, and handlines. Reports from artisan fishers and other observers from Mauritania to Guinea have reported a severe drop in abundance, as well as decreasing median size as the adults are removed.
Read more about this topic: Spiny Butterfly Ray
Famous quotes containing the words relationship to, relationship and/or humans:
“Sometimes in our relationship to another human being the proper balance of friendship is restored when we put a few grains of impropriety onto our own side of the scale.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Henry David Thoreau, who never earned much of a living or sustained a relationship with any woman that wasn’t brotherly—who lived mostly under his parents’ roof ... who advocated one day’s work and six days “off” as the weekly round and was considered a bit of a fool in his hometown ... is probably the American writer who tells us best how to live comfortably with our most constant companion, ourselves.”
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“Because humans are not alone in exhibiting such behavior—bees stockpile royal jelly, birds feather their nests, mice shred paper—it’s possible that a pregnant woman who scrubs her house from floor to ceiling [just before her baby is born] is responding to a biological imperative . . . . Of course there are those who believe that . . . the burst of energy that propels a pregnant woman to clean her house is a perfectly natural response to their mother’s impending visit.”
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