Global spatial risk assessment of sharks under the footprint of fisheries.

Nuno Queiroz, Nicolas E Humphries, Ana Couto, Marisa Vedor, Ivo da Costa, Ana M M Sequeira, Gonzalo Mucientes, António M Santos, Francisco J Abascal, Debra L Abercrombie, Katya Abrantes, David Acuña-Marrero, André S Afonso, Pedro Afonso, Darrell Anders, Gonzalo Araujo, Randall Arauz, Pascal Bach, Adam Barnett, Diego BernalMichael L. Berumen, Sandra Bessudo Lion, Natalia P A Bezerra, Antonin V Blaison, Barbara A Block, Mark E Bond, Russell W Bradford, Camrin D Braun, Edward J Brooks, Annabelle Brooks, Judith Brown, Barry D Bruce, Michael E Byrne, Steven E Campana, Aaron B Carlisle, Demian D Chapman, Taylor K Chapple, John Chisholm, Christopher R Clarke, Eric G Clua, Jesse E M Cochran, Estelle C Crochelet, Laurent Dagorn, Ryan Daly, Daniel Devia Cortés, Thomas K Doyle, Michael Drew, Clinton A J Duffy, Thor Erikson, Eduardo Espinoza, Luciana C Ferreira, Francesco Ferretti, John D Filmalter, G Chris Fischer, Richard Fitzpatrick, Jorge Fontes, Fabien Forget, Mark Fowler, Malcolm P Francis, Austin J Gallagher, Enrico Gennari, Simon D Goldsworthy, Matthew J Gollock, Jonathan R Green, Johan A Gustafson, Tristan L Guttridge, Hector M Guzman, Neil Hammerschlag, Luke Harman, Fábio H V Hazin, Matthew Heard, Alex R Hearn, John C Holdsworth, Bonnie J Holmes, Lucy A Howey, Mauricio Hoyos, Robert E Hueter, Nigel E Hussey, Charlie Huveneers, Dylan T Irion, David M P Jacoby, Oliver J D Jewell, Ryan Johnson, Lance K B Jordan, Salvador J Jorgensen, Warren Joyce, Clare A Keating Daly, James T Ketchum, A Peter Klimley, Alison A Kock, Pieter Koen, Felipe Ladino, Fernanda O Lana, James S E Lea, Fiona Llewellyn, Warrick S Lyon, Anna MacDonnell, Bruno C L Macena, Heather Marshall, Jaime D McAllister, Rory McAuley, Michael A Meÿer, John J Morris, Emily R Nelson, Yannis P Papastamatiou, Toby A Patterson, Cesar Peñaherrera-Palma, Julian G Pepperell, Simon J Pierce, Francois Poisson, Lina Maria Quintero, Andrew J Richardson, Paul J Rogers, Christoph A Rohner, David R L Rowat, Melita Samoilys, Jayson M Semmens, Marcus Sheaves, George Shillinger, Mahmood Shivji, Sarika Singh, Gregory B Skomal, Malcolm J Smale, Laurenne B Snyders, German Soler, Marc Soria, Kilian M Stehfest, John D Stevens, Simon R Thorrold, Mariana T Tolotti, Alison Towner, Paulo Travassos, John P Tyminski, Frederic Vandeperre, Jeremy J Vaudo, Yuuki Y Watanabe, Sam B Weber, Bradley M Wetherbee, Timothy D White, Sean Williams, Patricia M Zárate, Robert Harcourt, Graeme C Hays, Mark G Meekan, Michele Thums, Xabier Irigoien, Victor M Eguiluz, Carlos M. Duarte, Lara L Sousa, Samantha J Simpson, Emily J Southall, David W Sims

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

273 Scopus citations

Abstract

Effective ocean management and conservation of highly migratory species depends on resolving overlap between animal movements and distributions and fishing effort. Yet, this information is lacking at a global scale. Here we show, using a big-data approach combining 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 high-seas fishing effort. Results demonstrate an urgent need for conservation and management measures at high-seas shark hotspots and highlight the potential of simultaneous satellite surveillance of megafauna and fishers as a tool for near-real time, dynamic management.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)461-466
Number of pages6
JournalNature
Volume572
Issue number7770
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 24 2019

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: We thank all who were involved in fieldwork and data collection (full details are given in the Supplementary Information). Data analysis was funded in part by the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) (NE/R00997X/1) (to D.W.S.) with additional research support from the Save Our Seas Foundation and the NERC Oceans 2025 Strategic Research Programme, in which D.W.S. was a principal investigator. D.W.S. was supported by an MBA Senior Research Fellowship, N.Q. by European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) via the Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (COMPETE), National Funds via Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under PTDC/MAR/100345/2008 and COMPETE FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-010580 (to N.Q. and D.W.S.), and Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020) under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in project MarInfo (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000031). Additional support was provided by an FCT Investigator Fellowship IF/01611/2013 (N.Q.), FCT Doctoral Fellowship PD/BD/52603/2014 (M.V.), PTDC/MAR-BIO/4458/2012, Xunta de Galicia - Isabel Barreto Program 2009-2012 (G.M.), Australian Research Council (ARC) grant DE170100841 and operational funds from the Australian Institute for Marine Science (AIMS) (both to A.M.M.S.). We thank Stanford University, the Tagging of Pacific Predators programme and Global Fishing Watch for making data freely available. We thank M. Dando for creating the shark images. This research contributes to the Global Shark Movement Project (GSMP).

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