All bodies of salt water on Earth form one large ocean. But within it, there is infinite variety: ask any diver. Some places have more coral, more sea turtles, more fish, more life.
“I’ve been diving in many places around the world and there are few places like Fuvahmulah Atoll in the Maldives,” Amanda Batlle-Morera, research assistant for the Important Areas for Sharks and Rays project, told me. “You can observe tiger sharks, thresher sharks, hammerhead sharks, oceanic manta rays and more, without throwing out bait to attract them.”
Identifying areas like Fuvahmulah that are especially important for certain species is a long-standing strategy to protect threatened terrestrial animals, birds and marine mammals such as whales and dolphins. Now our team of marine conservation scientists at the Important Shark and Ray Areas project are using it to help protect sharks and their relatives.
I am a marine conservation biologist and communications manager for the project. This initiative is working to identify places that are critical for sharks and rays, so that these areas can be marked for future protection or fisheries management measures.
where are the sharks
Sharks and their relatives are some of the most endangered animals on Earth: more than a third of all known species are at risk of extinction. Many of these animals play vital roles in their ecosystems. The loss of marine predators can destabilize entire food webs and the ecosystems on which these food webs depend.
In recent years, the management of sharks and their relatives, rays and chimeras, has largely focused on curbing the impacts of fishing and trade on these species. But their populations continue to decline rapidly, so new strategies are needed.
To effectively protect these important and threatened animals, my colleagues and I believe it is vital to identify and protect parts of the ocean, as well as some freshwater habitats, that are especially important to their lives. Some areas, for example, are important migratory routes, feeding or mating areas, or places to lay eggs.
Our team has created a list of technical criteria so that areas around the world can be examined and potentially designated as Important Shark and Ray Areas. We model these criteria after similar approaches already in use, such as important marine mammal areas, which we adapt to the specific needs and biology of sharks and their relatives.
We are now hosting a series of 13 regional workshops around the world and inviting local experts to nominate preliminary areas of interest for evaluation by our team and an independent expert review panel. So far, we have completed three workshops, one focused on the Pacific of Central and South America, another on the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, and the third in the western Indian Ocean, with a workshop for Asia planned for early 2024.