Fiji's Sharks in Peril - Paper!

Remember? It is still happening!

Well well - watch.

And this is the paper.

Shame that it's hidden behind a paywall, the more as it is being hailed as a major achievement which it quite possibly is - but I will leave that determination to others.

What however irritates me is the characterization of Fiji.

The press release has quite obviously been re-worded as the initial version stated that Fiji's Sharks are functionally extinct which is a load of horse manure -  but even after the redaction, we are still being flagged as being particularly problematic which is just not true.

Here's the corresponding graph - click for detail.

Seriously, WTF?

Fiji down at the bottom - and then e.g. Tonga of all places near the top? Lemme tell 'ya that having extensively dived, and lived in both countries, this is just wrong wrong wrong in so many ways - which obviously begs the question, may other data sets be equally faulty?

So what exactly happened?

Having consulted the relevant map for Fiji, I learn that having dropped 382 BRUVs on 14 sites, they only recorded 5 Shark and 7 Ray species, and this only on 28.7% of the videos which is perplexing to say the least. But having asked, it turns out that instead of tapping the available local capacity and know how, they decided to parachute in some dude from New Zealand who I hear may have only sampled the sites of a particular NGO and not a representative cross-section of Fiji's reef ecosystems - and if so I can certainly leave it at that. *

Now compare that fiasco to the data of the GFSC.

Or to the fact that in our little region alone, we harbor at least 10 frequently encountered Sharks = GHH and Zebra, plus our usual Bull, Tiger, Sicklefin Lemon, Tawny, Silvertip, plus Grey, Whitetip and Blacktip Reefies, with several other diving operators and also research papers reporting the same and even more, equally ubiquitous reef-associated species like Scalloped Hammers or Blacktips from many other locations.

And then there's the simply massive data set from the hundreds of  BRUV drops by Projects Abroad that had incidentally been initiated in collaboration with the very same Demian Chapman who is one of the paper's leading authors - surely one should have added those sightings, too?

And the data from Tonga?

They are from a grand total of 24 drops on two sites... see what I mean?

Anyway - it is what it is.

Whereas the situation here is most certainly not remotely as bad as depicted, there is equally clearly room for improvement, see e.g.this old assessment, Kerstin's papers here and especially here, and also the description of Fiji's Elasmobranch fishery here at page 188 ff.

In brief and despite of the reduction in the Asian demand for their fins, our Reef Sharks and the juvenile Sharks in the riverine nurseries are now increasingly being targeted as an alternative source of protein as many of the traditional food Fish stocks are being depleted.

And to top it off, we're now witnessing a massive Covid-19- induced increase of indiscriminate fishing and poaching that is  threatening years of conservation efforts and also indirectly threatening our Shark populations by obliterating their prey.

Talking of which, I really did like reading that

Without an absolute estimate of the abundance of sharks, it is difficult to know how effective the estimated levels of conservation potential might be in restoring shark populations in reef ecosystems that have been degraded by overfishing.

Although research has shown that fully recovered reef fish communities have biomasses between 1,000 kg ha−1 (ref. 27) and 1,500 kg ha−1 (ref. 12), we have no current estimate of the size of the forage base that is required by a recovered shark population, or how the bottom-up effects of prey biomass might influence the recovery potential of reef sharks.

A key question remains as to whether management strategies that only pursue shark conservation can make substantial or limited gains, relative to those that include the restoration of the wider reef ecosystem.

If the restoration of the whole ecosystem is necessary to fully restore shark populations, our results underscore the need for managers to engage with the wider social, economic and cultural drivers of marine exploitation.

Could not agree more!

Long story short, the paper is certainly welcome.

Far from being defeatist, the authors suggest several pathways for improvement that I can only second, albeit with the usual general caveats (= e.g. follow the links here).

The good news is that here in Fiji, there is already some progress, namely the fin ban, the CMM for Sharks by the WCPFC  (incidentally once again courtesy of the simply unequaled Shelley) and an upcoming, WWF-sponsored, long overdue NPOA (Sharks) that will provide a framework for subsequent regulations and pacify the FAO.

And then, hopefully, we will get The Big One.

No, likely not a Shark Sanctuary but instead this comprehensive regulation - and having checked, all appears to be on track for the December deadline at the end of this year!

In any case, we stand ready.

Thanks to Tashi Blue's boundless and also, infinitely endearing passion and commitment, her My Fiji Shark project has been able to accumulate a nice little war chest that will greatly help us assist with the implementation of the regulation.

So fingers crossed and yes, very much to be continued!

But I'm digressing as always.

Enjoy the Shark paper!

Oh and, Adopt your Shark now!

* PS - Demian informs me that there was no parachute science as the vast majority of drops was effected over several years by that local NGO - which obviously begs the question, what went wrong?

Wrong habitat/site selection? Lousy bait?

Anyway, it is what it is.

Global Fin Print - epic!

Great stuff!

Read this and this announcement.

I've heard whispers about a meeting of seriously wealthy people wanting to contribute serious money to Shark conservation - and although this is pure speculation, this may well be strike one! Be it as it may, the lead team is just simply awesome and above all, it is finally (!) showing the kind of productive cooperation I've been publicly advocating for so long.

So congrats, and godspeed!

And have you noticed the videos?

Compare to this, showcasing the work by Projects Abroad's science supremos El Diego and Gauthier under the leadership of Demian and Mark - remember?

Great to see it embedded in such a prestigious project!

Just goes to show that once you stop the blathering and start the doing, good things will follow!

To be continued no doubt!

Endothermy and Performance - Paper!

Click for detail! Interestingly, Leatherback Turtles have a warmed body core and Swordfish, a rudimentary heat exchanger allowing them to reduce heat loss.
 

Nice!

Rad this.

Warm-blooded Fishes like Mackerel Sharks and Tuna perform better = swim faster and migrate further. Despite of the high cost of keeping one's temperature elevated, these species appear to derive a comparable advantage over ectothermic Fishes, and I cite.

In conclusion, our comparative analyses indicate that a potential ecological advantage of RM endothermy in fishes is the ability to cruise faster, which not only increases prey encounter rates, but also enables larger-scale annual migrations and greater access to seasonally available resources. We suggest that this advantage, coupled with the previously recognized benefit of thermal niche expansion, could outweigh high energetic costs incurred by RM endothermy and, thus, has facilitated the radiation and diversification of tunas and endothermic sharks. Our analyses also indicate that fishes with RM endothermy are similar to birds and mammals in many respects, including not only high metabolic rates and temperature dependence of muscle function, but also fast cruising speeds and the capabilities of large-scale migrations.

Story here and here.

Now you know! :)

Kiwi Invasion!

Intrepid: Mike (camera) and Riley (long fins) on location - click for detail!

Apologies again!

Here's another one I should have posted much earlier.

Actually, make it two!

First, we hosted a small 3-day shoot with Mike Bhana of Wild Film who is producing a Shark program featuring young Shark researcher, conservationist and presenter Riley Elliott. Considering Riley's public palling with the Hawaiian whisperette, I must confess that we did agree to the project with much trepidation - but we could not have been more mistaken.

Mike is the real deal, a true mossback of Shark cinematography - and I must say that I'm rather impressed by Riley who comes across as highly personable, knowledgeable and pragmatic, i.e. nothing like his portrayal in the social media. He may well be the next big thing in Shark-related media - and here's to him navigating the countless pitfalls and never losing his integrity!

So far so good!

And then, there was Demian.

This time it was less of a whirlwind cameo, meaning that he did finally find the time to come for a dive - sporting an All Blacks t-shirt that nearly got him killed! 

Joining him, among many others, were Mark Bond who supervises Projects Abroad's BRUV research in Beqa Lagoon; and as a total surprise and to my great delight, Jess Cramp who was so instrumental in bringing about the Cook Islands Shark Sanctuary. The team are here for another two weeks or so where they are scouring the archipelago, I might add, in style, working on MPAs and also tagging oceanic Sharks.

And BTW!

You South Africans - you may want to ask Mark who, exactly, got the biggest Bull Sharks! :)

Bravo Demian!

I've been remiss in not posting this earlier.

Demian is one of the good guys.

So I'm particularly pleased to read this announcement.

Impressive bio here, project outline here.

Huge congratulations!

The Nadi Workshop - Spillover!

Top left-to-right: Api, Ben and Tumbee
Middle left-to-right: Ingrid, Colin, Perry, Juerg and Netani
Bottom left-to-right: Gary and Angelo - click for detail!

Apologies - I'm currently simply too busy to blog.

Just this.

Looks like the big Shark meeting has been a great success as told here by Angelo.

And it has had direct repercussions for us.

Several participants have made time to come and say hi, and most have managed to partake in a  stellar Shark dive with plenty of Fiji Bulls and great viz. It just so happens that our dear friends Juerg and Gary are visiting, resulting in the rather epic picture above where the notable absentee is Demian who merely managed to squeeze in a short cameo before gallivanting off to some other remote destination where he's championing the cause of Sharks.

Fortuitous or not, a meeting like that will always have consequences.

Keep watching this space!

Lemon Shark Philopatry - Comments by Doc!

PIT tagging of juvenile Lemons, Bimini - source.

Wow.

I just found this in my inbox.

This is what it takes to produce real and like I said, simply epic research - not this amateur shit, and I cite,

We conducted the tests of potential approach preference of sharks with regard to human body orientation in the Northern Abaco Islands, Bahamas, on 8 days between July 7 and 24, 2009. Later on, several days were excluded due to the chosen criteria.

But I'm digressing as usual.

Without further ado, here are the remarks = two cents :) by Doc - needless to say that I am honored!

Reply to Da Shark’s blog on the recent publication of our lemon shark genetic research in the journal Molecular Ecology as reported in the New York Times: 

Like the EverReady bunny, we are still going….and in June 2014 it will be year 19. 

There is still a lot more to be learned from our continuing and longitudinal study of lemon shark genetics but here's the way this all played out according to my foggy recollection. 

In 1990 the Bimini Biological Field Station was established. 

That year we became interested in shark genetics and actually did our first "PIT project" collecting genetic samples and PIT (RFID) tagging the little lemons. We caught 90 lemon sharks that June but alas that was the last I ever heard of the samples which were sent for analysis to a black hole the UK. In addition we caught no lemon sharks in November 1990 so I figured that was that. 

In 1995, I was contacted by a young graduate student, Kevin Feldheim working in Mary Ashley's lab at University of Illinois-Chicago. 

He wanted to study our little lemon sharks but had no funds. I thought we could support Kevin at the station if Mary could deal with his laboratory work. So I went to Chicago and we got into a discussion about NSF funding. I had been relatively successful with NSF in the past but after recovering from cancer in 1989 I hated the idea of writing one of those damned proposal "books" again only to get it turned down. However working together in Chicago the three of us wrote a first-class proposal and MIRACLE! The combination of Mary's expertise and my reputation as some sort of shark maverick did the trick and NSF granted us funds to bring Kev to Bimini for a few years to do the field research. So starting in 1995 and continuing even until today we tagged sharks and collected genetic material; and for three years, funded by our NSF grant we sampled over 700 young lemon sharks at Bimini. 

Of course shark genetics did not start with our project but these earlier studies were mainly set up to determine the relationship between species---molecular taxonomy. 

In contrast, we were interested in the genetics of breeding biology which was entirely unknown for sharks as well as most other aquatic vertebrates. 

I think there were three reasons for the fantastic (to me) success of this project: 

First was Kevin Feldheim who carried out hundreds of experiments until he found the key to DNA finger printing lemon sharks....microsatellite alleles with high variability conferred by high repeat numbers (this laid the background for the research of Joey DiBattista and Demian Chapman); second, the amazing lemon shark, an animal that repeatedly lent itself to manipulation as a model species (think white rat!) allowing us to study the biology of large sharks; and three, the islands of Bimini for which the vagaries of sea level rise and fall created a small lagoon that was the perfect breeding ground for lemon sharks. Importantly unlike Florida only 42 NM to the west, our Bimini lemon sharks hung around the islands for up to 8 years and could be captured time and time again. 

Once Kevin laid the groundwork to open up questions that were previously unanswerable, we undertook a concerted effort to mine this treasure of marine biology. 

Enter Dr. Ellen Pikitch and the Pew Foundation: Already the lead author Dr. Damian Chapman had been to the Sharklab years ago and so had Ellen but now things got serious. I was nearing retirement and thinking about the future funding of the Sharklab. Ellen got the idea to fund the station with a generous 5-year PEW grant and in exchange we would share all the data with her then doctoral student Damien Chapman. This was a dream come true for all of us. Now we had another grant that would see us through the lemon shark's estimated time-to-maturity...shown by my student Craig Brown way back in the 80s to be 12-14 years after birth. 

Simultaneously we began to develop techniques to search out and wrangle the potentially dangerous adult lemon sharks that come into the lagoon for mating and parturition every April and May. 

We were eventually able to predict when they would show up, how to capture them and even learned to do a kind of mid-midwifery to assist in the birth process. This technique provided DNA from both the Mom and all her pups. It then became a matter of continuing the collections until a dozen years went by in hopes that a youngster born in Bimini in 1995 or later survived to adulthood and could be identified in Kevin and Joey's lemon shark pedigree. 

Well....incredibly our gamble our came true. 

After about a dozen years a few survivors began to appear in the lagoon and we thought this was just amazing. Talk about tenacity and collaboration! We predicted based on two decades of prior study that the lemon shark would return---and we toughed out the years and effort to do the labor-intensive but hugely enjoyable task of collecting lemon shark pups for a dozen years and beyond, braving shark bites, tropical thunder storms, dangerous lightening, swarms of mosquitoes, no real sleep for weeks on end and a myriad of other political and biological barriers including serious damage to the nursery from a ridiculously huge resort development on tiny little Bimini. 

Together in collaboration between three research institutions, the Bimini Biological Field Station Foundation, University of Illinois-Chicago and Stonybrook University the study that Da Shark so eloquently referred to was accomplished. 

If you actually have time to read this missive you will see that the influence of one group or the other to the success of this remarkable research is total....no progress could have been made without the three institution's cooperation. And even today, 19 years after the project began we are continuing the annual collection of genetic data from not one but three sites in hopes that one day the lemon shark and its vulnerable nursery habitats will receive the protection that they truly need. 

Just my two cents. doc 

Dr. Samuel H. Gruber (Emeritus) 

Division of Marine Biology and Fisheries 

Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences 

University of Miami 

and 

Bimini Biological Field Station Foundation 

9300 SW 99 St 

Miami FL 

http://www.miami.edu/sharklab 

Natal Philopatry in Lemon Sharks - Paper!

Time for some Hi-Fives! Source.

Now THIS is real science!

No wonder as starting with the Grand Mufti himself, the list of authors reads like the who's who of Shark research - and with the data spanning a whopping 17 years, this is nothing short of epic!

All I can say is, I'm deeply impressed!

Looks like Lemon Sharks not only go back and give birth in the same nurseries (= reproductive philatropy) like the Moorea Blacktips, but that those nurseries are the very where they themselves were born (= natal philopatry or natal homing), like e.g. Salmon or Turtles! This has immediate implications for conservation insofar as it mandates special efforts to protect those nurseries.

Nice synopses here, here and here - and here's a video.

And the Bull Sharks?
Mark has already published evidence for reproductive philopatry of Bull Sharks in Australia, and one of the aims of our new research projects with Projects Abroad will be to check whether this is equally the case for our Fiji Bull Sharks.
So keep watching this space!

Anyway, great job!

Enjoy!

Demian - Shark Talk!

Demian and Debbie in Bangkok - source.

Demian Chapman is a fantastic lecturer.

I've posted his talk about GWS a while ago and if you haven't done so, I invite you to take the time to watch it as it is simply brilliant.

He is also one of the authors of the numbers paper.

But he's not only an excellent researcher but also deeply involved in Shark conservation. Together with his wife Debra Abercrombie, one of his latest endeavors has been to develop a Shark fin ID guide and he has also developed simple, cheap Shark DNA identification tests that when combined would enable e.g. customs or fisheries officers to efficiently monitor Shark fishing and fin trading activities.
Over the past year, he and Debbie have been running several fin ID workshops, and they are now at the CITES CoP where they will undoubtedly attempt to to educate a maximum of delegates.

This is his talk on the subject from last February.

Required watching!

Demian - great Interview!

We've been busy with four shoots in ten days, so I'm playing catch-up.

What has caught my attention is this article in Business Insider.
I must say, this is really as good as it gets, and this largely owing to Demian Chapman's excellent explanations about the Shark fin trade and CITES. On top of being a brilliant researcher, Demian is one of the people who have been mentored by Doc, so this comes at no surprise - still, it is always refreshing to find rational and fact-based statements amid all the unhelpful hyperbole and frothy petitioning of the sharktivists!

Required reading!

GW Biology - totally fascinating!

One of the best GW ever, by Terry Goss (yes this is a link!)

Found the following by pure happenstance.

Very informative and at the same time, very entertaining indeed!
Keeping it Green is a program by Debbie Klughers who just won a scholarship by the Women's Hall of Fame. The lecturer is Dr. Demian Chapman, according to my sources one of the good guys - as evidenced by the fact that he has obviously worked with Doc, Mahmood and Mrs Pikitch. And may G.H. Harvey be the Guy, and may the paper be related to Guy's work in Cayman?

Anyway, enjoy!
AND: check out the third video, 10:15 - that was in November 2010, now we know more!