That poor species has been put upon forever, a doctor at the Quarantine station here in the late 1800's hunted them by harpoon for sport. In WWII the gunners training at Keesler AFB used them as targets. Had a shrimper friend back in the 80's was on a big steel hull one day & it started turning circles, they winched in the trawl & found a 2000 pound ray in the net.