Fishing boat owner, crew praised for releasing snared Manta rays
A fishing boat owner and crew have won praise for releasing two giant Manta rays caught in its net back to the Andaman Sea off Phang Nga’s Kura Buri.
Thana Ketsa-ard, owner of the Thanakorn 99 fishing boat, posted a video on Facebook at 12.30am on Tuesday night showing his workers rescuing the two Manta rays just hours’ earlier.
The trawler crew had hauled up the net only to discover the two rays, which grow up to 7 metres in width, were trapped along with their normal catch. The clip shows the crew in the water helping to release the mantas from the net about 7 nautical miles off the Similan Island.
Thana comments in the post that he had ordered his men to free the rays, each of which weighed about 150 kilograms. The largest mantas can reach 1,350 kilograms.
Thana had earlier won praise from Facebook users after he posted a clip of his crew releasing a Leatherback turtle, which weighed about 300 kilograms, back to the sea after it was trapped in the boat’s net.