What a Relief: This Ray Is Not Extinct After All

Believed to be critically endangered, if not extinct, the tentacled butterfly ray has been seen in Iran’s waters – now, preservation measures need to be put into place to save the species from extinction once and for all.

“We’re excited [the tentacled butterfly ray] is still in Iran,” says Rima Jabado, a marine scientist and founder of the Elasmo Project based in the United Arab Emirates.

Not seen since 1986, off Pakistan, the tentacled butterfly ray was identified as critically endangered and possibly extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2017. But when a marine biologist associated with Iran’s Qeshm Environmental Conservation Institute started gathering data for the country’s first shark and ray conservation program, he found a specimen in a fishnet. Between October 2019 and November 2020, the biologist found 367 specimens in 39 catches.