Counting the cost of overfishing on sharks and rays
نویسندگان
چکیده
Over half of all shark and ray species are at risk of extinction or at least heading that way.
منابع مشابه
Basking to attention
With growing concern about the prospects of many marine species, a report earlier this summer highlighted the plight of pelagic, open ocean sharks, which are increasingly under threat. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) shark specialist group reported that 32 per cent of 64 species of open-sea sharks and rays are under threat of extinction. “Despite mounting threats, ...
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Impacts of chronic overfishing are evident in population depletions worldwide, yet indirect ecosystem effects induced by predator removal from oceanic food webs remain unpredictable. As abundances of all 11 great sharks that consume other elasmobranchs (rays, skates, and small sharks) fell over the past 35 years, 12 of 14 of these prey species increased in coastal northwest Atlantic ecosystems....
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Portuguese commercial Elasmobranch landings were analysed for the period 1986 2009 and revealed that some species may be in danger of overfishing. Landings totalled 122,515 mt, with an average of 5,105 mt landed yearly, with captured sharks, skates and rays representing 8 orders, 14 families and 44 species. Annual landings for the fishery generally decreased over time, with a corresponding incr...
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This brief review examines the many human activities that threaten sharks, their impacts, and the implications for the ecosystems that rely upon these apex predators. As keystone species, sharks play a crucial role in maintaining healthy ecosystems by asserting top-down forces on trophic webs and keeping prey populations healthy and in balance. However, sharks’ slow growth rates, low fecundity ...
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The rapid expansion of human activities threatens ocean-wide biodiversity. Numerous marine animal populations have declined, yet it remains unclear whether these trends are symptomatic of a chronic accumulation of global marine extinction risk. We present the first systematic analysis of threat for a globally distributed lineage of 1,041 chondrichthyan fishes-sharks, rays, and chimaeras. We est...
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