We watched a film called “Racing Extinction” about how humans are exterminating many animal species and that we are doing very little to stop it from happening. It talked about many different species but it mostly focused on Manta Rays. It explained how Manta Rays are hunted in many rural towns in Indonesia. The mantas are tracked, harpooned, caught, cut up, sold to distributers and eventually sold to clients. Over 1,000 mantas are killed per year, and this is severely affecting the population. Now, there are many more laws and crack downs on manta hunters. Since 2013, Mantas are also considered endangered species. This means that the territories that have mantas in their eco-system, will help defend and preserve the species. Hopefully, this help will aid this dying animal. After convincing the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) to make the manta ray an endangered species, the group who did so projected photos and videos of endangered animals on the U.N. building. The reason why they did this was to “publicize” so to speak the extreme that we have arrived at, and the amount of endangered animal species that need help just to exist now. This show the full extent of the world’s overconsumption problem. We consume so much, that a thing like CITES needs to exist. This is a huge problem that needs PERMANENT fixing.
