Global spatial risk assessment of sharks under the footprint of fisheries

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Author(s)
Queiroz, Nuno
Humphries, Nicolas E
Couto, Ana
Vedor, Marisa
da Costa, Ivo
Sequeira, Ana MM
Mucientes, Gonzalo
Santos, Antonio M
Abascal, Francisco J
Abercrombie, Debra L
Abrantes, Katya
Acuna-Marrero, David
Afonso, Andre S
Gustafson, Johan A
et al.
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2019
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© 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. Effective ocean management and the conservation of highly migratory species depend on resolving the overlap between animal movements and distributions, and fishing effort. However, this information is lacking at a global scale. Here we show, using a big-data approach that combines satellite-tracked movements of pelagic sharks and global fishing fleets, that 24% of the mean monthly space used by sharks falls under the footprint of pelagic longline fisheries. Space-use hotspots of commercially valuable sharks and of internationally protected species had ...
View more >© 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. Effective ocean management and the conservation of highly migratory species depend on resolving the overlap between animal movements and distributions, and fishing effort. However, this information is lacking at a global scale. Here we show, using a big-data approach that combines satellite-tracked movements of pelagic sharks and global fishing fleets, that 24% of the mean monthly space used by sharks falls under the footprint of pelagic longline fisheries. Space-use hotspots of commercially valuable sharks and of internationally protected species had the highest overlap with longlines (up to 76% and 64%, respectively), and were also associated with significant increases in fishing effort. We conclude that pelagic sharks have limited spatial refuge from current levels of fishing effort in marine areas beyond national jurisdictions (the high seas). Our results demonstrate an urgent need for conservation and management measures at high-seas hotspots of shark space use, and highlight the potential of simultaneous satellite surveillance of megafauna and fishers as a tool for near-real-time, dynamic management.
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View more >© 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. Effective ocean management and the conservation of highly migratory species depend on resolving the overlap between animal movements and distributions, and fishing effort. However, this information is lacking at a global scale. Here we show, using a big-data approach that combines satellite-tracked movements of pelagic sharks and global fishing fleets, that 24% of the mean monthly space used by sharks falls under the footprint of pelagic longline fisheries. Space-use hotspots of commercially valuable sharks and of internationally protected species had the highest overlap with longlines (up to 76% and 64%, respectively), and were also associated with significant increases in fishing effort. We conclude that pelagic sharks have limited spatial refuge from current levels of fishing effort in marine areas beyond national jurisdictions (the high seas). Our results demonstrate an urgent need for conservation and management measures at high-seas hotspots of shark space use, and highlight the potential of simultaneous satellite surveillance of megafauna and fishers as a tool for near-real-time, dynamic management.
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Journal Title
Nature
Volume
572
Issue
7770
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Nature Publishing Group. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Environmental sciences
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
IMPROVING LIGHT
PELAGIC SHARKS