I used to pier fish a lot in a previous life.
When anyone hooked a ray, if it had any size at all you had to just cut the line. They just don’t “reel in”. And no real fight, they just go sideways, or dig in the sand, and its like trying to pull in a rock. Yeah you can do it, but its not that fun IHMO.
Recently I have seen piers that have a “release rig” of sorts that the pier crew pulls when rays get hooked, but I’ve never seen it work.
I used to frequent the Jupiter inlet in the late 70s and snorkel for sinkers and lures. I saw a school of manta coming in right at the entrance, in the middle. The water was so clear on incoming tide you could see them easily. (Saw from the seawall, not in the water).