TAMPA, Fla. — Floridians were enraged last summer when a viral video showed men offshore Panama City capturing a giant manta ray, a federally threatened species, and hoisting the animal onto their boat.
That anger only skyrocketed when it became clear that Florida’s wildlife agency had approved the capture: The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission granted a permit to an aquarium supplier company, Dynasty Marine Associates, to catch the manta ray for a SeaWorld in Abu Dhabi.
The video, taken by a dolphin tour boat crew, shed light on a little-known yet long-standing policy that allows the government to grant the legal capture in state waters of endangered marine life, like sharks and rays, for commercial and entertainment purposes across the world…