The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
SSG Regions - Australia and Oceania: New
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Conservation and Management of Deep Sea Chondrichthyan Fishes
Pre-Conference Meeting to be held in conjunction with DEEPSEA 2003
University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
27 - 29 November 2003
The Food and Agriculture Organization
and
IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group
Registration
Call for Abstracts
Aims
This meeting will provide an opportunity for specialists to present information on the ecology, taxonomy, stock status and threats to deepsea chondrichthyans, and to discuss conservation and management recommendations for these highly vulnerable fish, many of which are threatened by deep-sea fisheries. This will be undertaken within the context of the FAO International Plan of Action for Conservation and Management of Sharks (IPOA-SHARKS), which recommends that all States contributing to fishing mortality on an elasmobranch species or stock should participate in its management. Assessments for the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species will also be completed for as many deepsea chondrichthyans as possible, in order to establish a baseline for monitoring improvements in our knowledge of this group of fishes, and changes in their overall conservation and management status.
Background
Nearly 35% of chondrichthyan species are confined to the deepsea environment. They are biologically highly vulnerable to over-exploitation, even more so than coastal and epipelagic oceanic species. This is due to their slower growth and reproductive rates, lower biomasses compared to shelf species, and the limited productivity and geographic constraints of cold, deepsea environments.
Many deepsea chondrichthyans are widely (although often disjunctly) distributed, but others are apparently endemics, restricted to very small areas such as the slopes of isolated ocean mounts, submarine ridges, or the deep slopes of a single country.
There is little information on stock size or distribution of most of these species, indeed some deepsea fisheries are taking chondrichthyan fishes that have not yet been described, yet few marine animals have lower international fisheries management priority than the unfamiliar, relatively low value, deepsea sharks, rays and chimaeras.
Commercial development of new deep-sea fisheries is increasing as pelagic and inshore demersal stocks decline and fleets move further offshore and into deeper water. It is possible that deepsea fisheries could drive some bathyal chondrichthyans (particularly endemics) to extinction before management can be implemented, and possibly even before the species have been seen and described by researchers. The workshop will address the urgent need to develop management recommendations using the guidelines set out in the FAO IPOA-Sharks.
Further Details
Interested participants are invited to contact Sarah Irvine Sarah.Irvine@csiro.au. Further details regarding submissions of abstracts and other meeting details will be posted on the Conference web site in the near future.
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