Global status and conservation potential of reef sharks

M. Aaron Macneil , Demian Chapman , Michelle Heupel , Colin Simpfendorfer , Michael Heithaus , Mark Meekan , Euan Harvey , Jordan Goetze , Jeremy Kiszka , Mark Bond , Leanne Currey-Randall , Conrad Speed , C. Samantha Sherman , Matthew Rees , Vinay Udyawer , Kathryn Flowers , Gina Clementi , Jasmine Valentin-Albanese , Taylor Gorham , M. Shiham Adam , Khadeeja Ali , Fabián Pina-Amargós , Jorge Angulo-Valdés , Jacob Asher , Laura García Barcia , Océane Beaufort , Cecilie Benjamin , Anthony Bernard , Michael Berumen , Stacy Bierwagen , Erika Bonnema , Rosalind Bown , Darcy Bradley , Edd Brooks , J. Jed Brown , Dayne Buddo , Patrick Burke , Camila Cáceres , Diego Cardeñosa , Jeffrey Carrier , Jennifer Caselle , Venkatesh Charloo , Thomas Claverie , Eric Clua (1, 2) , Jesse Cochran , Neil Cook , Jessica Cramp , Brooke D’alberto , Martin de Graaf , Mareike Dornhege , Andy Estep , Lanya Fanovich , Naomi Farabaugh , Daniel Fernando , Anna Flam , Camilla Floros , Virginia Fourqurean , Ricardo Garla , Kirk Gastrich , Lachlan George , Rory Graham , Tristan Guttridge , Royale Hardenstine , Stephen Heck , Aaron Henderson , Heidi Hertler , Robert Hueter , Mohini Johnson , Stacy Jupiter , Devanshi Kasana , Steven Kessel , Benedict Kiilu , Taratu Kirata , Baraka Kuguru , Fabian Kyne , Tim Langlois , Elodie Lédée , Steve Lindfield , Andrea Luna-Acosta , Jade Maggs , B. Mabel Manjaji-Matsumoto , Andrea Marshall , Philip Matich , Erin Mccombs , Dianne Mclean , Llewelyn Meggs , Stephen Moore , Sushmita Mukherji , Ryan Murray , Muslimin Kaimuddin , Stephen Newman , Josep Nogués , Clay Obota (3) , Owen O’shea , Kennedy Osuka , Yannis Papastamatiou , Nishan Perera , Bradley Peterson , Alessandro Ponzo , Andhika Prasetyo , L. Quamar , Jessica Quinlan , Alexei Ruiz-Abierno , Enric Sala , Melita Samoilys , Michelle Schärer-Umpierre , Audrey Schlaff , Nikola Simpson , Adam Smith , Lauren Sparks , Akshay Tanna , Rubén Torres , Michael Travers , Maurits van Zinnicq Bergmann , Laurent Vigliola , Juney Ward , Alexandra Watts , Colin Wen , Elizabeth Whitman , Aaron Wirsing , Aljoscha Wothke , Esteban Zarza-Gonzâlez , Joshua Cinner (4)

1 CRIOBE - Centre de recherches insulaires et observatoire de l'environnement
2 LabEX CORAIL - Laboratoire d'Excellence CORAIL
3 CORDIO - East Africa - Coastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean - East Africa
4 ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reefs Studies and Coral Genomics Group, James Cook University (JCU)

Decades of overexploitation have devastated shark populations, leaving considerable doubt as to their ecological status1,2. Yet much of what is known about sharks has been inferred from catch records in industrial fisheries, whereas far less information is available about sharks that live in coastal habitats3. Here we address this knowledge gap using data from more than 15,000 standardized baited remote underwater video stations that were deployed on 371 reefs in 58 nations to estimate the conservation status of reef sharks globally. Our results reveal the profound impact that fishing has had on reef shark populations: we observed no sharks on almost 20% of the surveyed reefs. Reef sharks were almost completely absent from reefs in several nations, and shark depletion was strongly related to socio-economic conditions such as the size and proximity of the nearest market, poor governance and the density of the human population. However, opportunities for the conservation of reef sharks remain: shark sanctuaries, closed areas, catch limits and an absence of gillnets and longlines were associated with a substantially higher relative abundance of reef sharks. These results reveal several policy pathways for the restoration and management of reef shark populations, from direct top-down management of fishing to indirect improvement of governance conditions. Reef shark populations will only have a high chance of recovery by engaging key socio-economic aspects of tropical fisheries.

Domains: Biodiversity and Ecology

M. Aaron Macneil, Demian Chapman, Michelle Heupel, Colin Simpfendorfer, Michael Heithaus, et al.. Global status and conservation potential of reef sharks. Nature, 2020, 583 (7818), pp.801-806. ⟨10.1038/s41586-020-2519-y⟩. ⟨hal-02978312⟩