• Addressing knowledge gaps in shark and r

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Thursday, March 10, 2022 21:30:40
    Addressing knowledge gaps in shark and ray research

    Date:
    March 10, 2022
    Source:
    Virginia Tech
    Summary:
    Sharks and rays are one of the most ancient vertebrate groups, as
    well as one of the most endangered. Researchers still know very
    little about many shark and ray species and the environments in
    which they live, particularly rare species and those that dwell
    in remote areas, where resources and capacity for conducting study
    and monitoring are scarce.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Sharks and rays are one of the most ancient vertebrate groups, as well
    as one of the most endangered.


    ========================================================================== Researchers still know very little about many shark and ray species and
    the environments in which they live, particularly rare species and those
    that dwell in remote areas, where resources and capacity for conducting
    study and monitoring are scarce.

    To address these knowledge gaps, Francesco Ferretti, an assistant
    professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation in the
    College of Natural Resources and Environment, polled an international
    team of scientists and practitioners to take a pulse of the greatest
    issues that are present in shark research, marine conservation, and
    fisheries science.

    "In science, it is very important to know things. But it is even more
    important to understand what you don't know. If you are able to do that,
    then you can focus your efforts more effectively in that direction,"
    said Ferretti, who is an affiliate of the Center for Coastal Studies and
    the Global Change Center, both of which are housed in the Fralin Life
    Sciences Institute. "In our review, we found that key opportunities
    for addressing these threats and conserving these crucially important
    animals come from technological advances, international coordination of research and action, and multi-stakeholder collaboration." Their review
    was published in Endangered Species Research.

    Ferretti and his colleagues selected 20 of the most pressing topics
    in research and conservation of shark and ray populations. The issues
    ranged from their ecology to the threats they face and management and conservation actions that need to be taken.



    ==========================================================================
    A total of 47 experts from 35 institutions and 13 countries came together
    to offer their current understandings, knowledge gaps, and what is,
    in their opinion, the way forward.

    "Sharks and rays are an amazing group of animals that occupy all oceanic
    and coastal ecosystems of our planet," said Fiorenza Micheli, co-director
    of Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions and co-author of the study. "This extraordinary diversity and key ecological functions and services are at
    risk from many pressures -- overexploitation, pollution, habitat loss,
    and climate change." The importance of sharks and rays in coastal marine ecosystems cannot be overstated. These animals are the top predators
    in the food chain, and they are able to influence the abundance of prey populations, shape the structure and function of marine communities and
    food webs, and bridge distant ecosystems together.

    Unfortunately, these animals are particularly vulnerable to exploitation because of two reasons: their patterns of survival -- such as late
    maturation and low offspring numbers -- and widespread exposure to
    human-caused pressures.

    "We have learned a great deal about some of the larger and more
    charismatic shark species and in many parts of the world have established effective ongoing monitoring programs," said Salvador Jorgensen, a marine ecologist and researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz,
    and a lead author on the study. "While we build on those successes, it
    is imperative that we also shift our focus to lesser-known but equally important shark and ray species, transfering lessons learned to remote
    habitats and rare species that have escaped scientific study but not the increasing pressures of human impact." To help solve this issue of data scarcity, Ferretti's lab is leveraging our fascination with sharks and infatuation with social media.



    ========================================================================== Ferretti's lab is using a new and intriguing piece of technology
    called sharkPulse to help solve the scarcity of shark data. This is a crowdsourcing platform supported by seed funding from the Global Change
    Center able to transform all images or media found on social networks
    of shark occurrences into data that can be used for analysis.

    The lab is tapping into social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Flickr. Additionally, sharkPulse allows citizen scientists
    to share their own images from their mobile phones and validate the
    streams of data that are coming from the social media platforms.

    With permission of citizen scientists and access to their geolocation information and timestamps, researchers will be able to conduct habitat modeling analysis, perform trend and distribution analyses, and plan
    more targeted field investigations.

    Last year, Feretti used distribution models based on sharkPulse and other historical sighting record data on an expedition in the Sicilian Channel
    to study the area's incredibly rare great white shark population. Great
    white shark populations have plummeted as a result of overfishing in
    the Mediterranean, raising the question of how many animals remain. They
    intend to return to the Mediterranean in the spring of next year to tag
    and follow more of the elusive animals.

    But understanding more about shark behavior and habitats is more than
    just filling in information gaps; it can also help us safeguard sharks
    and ourselves from unintentional attacks.

    "By understanding more sharks, we can also mitigate the risk of
    interacting with these sharks because we know seasons where they are
    active and the seasons when they are absent," said Ferretti. "You don't go
    in the northern part of California and surf in November, because that's
    a hot spot for white sharks. If you want to reduce your risk, go down to Southern California, where there are younger sharks and smaller sharks
    with lower risk for them to interact in an injurious way." The review
    will be especially beneficial to aspiring scientists and researchers
    who want to stay up to date on the newest technologies and improve their studies on sharks.

    "Reviews such as this are an incredible way to synthesize findings
    from various studies and identify patterns, which may be particularly
    useful in understanding the biology and ecology of some lesser-studied
    species of sharks and rays," said Brendan Shea, a Ph.D. student in the
    Ferretti lab. "Ultimately, we hope this review serves as a road map for
    future work by identifying the critical knowledge gaps in shark and ray
    science as well as some of the most promising approaches and technologies researchers can use to pursue them."

    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Virginia_Tech. Original written by
    Kendall Daniels. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. SJ Jorgensen, F Micheli, TD White, KS Van Houtan, J Alfaro-Shigueto,
    S
    Andrzejaczek, NS Arnoldi, JK Baum, B Block, GL Britten, C Butner,
    S Caballero, D Carden~osa, TK Chapple, S Clarke, E Corte's, NK
    Dulvy, S Fowler, AJ Gallagher, E Gilman, BJ Godley, RT Graham, N
    Hammerschlag, AV Harry, MR Heithaus, M Hutchinson, C Huveneers, CG
    Lowe, LO Lucifora, T MacKeracher, JC Mangel, AP Barbosa Martins, DJ
    McCauley, L McClenachan, C Mull, LJ Natanson, D Pauly, DA Pazmin~o,
    JCA Pistevos, N Queiroz, G Roff, BD Shea, CA Simpfendorfer, DW Sims,
    C Ward-Paige, B Worm, F Ferretti.

    Emergent research and priorities for shark and ray conservation.

    Endangered Species Research, 2022; 47: 171 DOI: 10.3354/esr01169 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220310115156.htm

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