The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 10: January 1998
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American Fisheries Society Symposium on Long-lived Marine Animals
This symposium, held during the American Fisheries Society Annual
Meeting (August 1997, Monterey, California), reviewed the ecology
and conservation of a range of long-lived marine animals such as
sharks, sea turtles, sturgeons and groupers. These are characterised
by long life spans, slow growth and late maturity; factors which make
them very vulnerable to mortality caused by humans. Those which
also produce only a few young, capable of high survivorship under
natural conditions, or which occupy limited or sensitive critical
habitats (e.g. sea turtle nesting beaches or estuarine/riverine spawning
grounds), are particularly susceptible to man's activities. Species
with such extreme life-history limitations need careful management
if they are not to be driven to regional extinction by commercial
multi-species fishing operations and other human pressures.
Objectives of the symposium included educating scientists,
policy-makers and the public about the need to conserve and
properly manage these and other long-lived marine animals. The
meeting was also the first step towards the preparation of an
American Fisheries Society position statement which will be used to
influence management policies for these organisms and to increase
public visibility of their special management needs.
Papers were presented by top researchers from throughout the
United States, Canada and Australia. Their subjects included the
status, life history, management and conservation of long-lived
teleosts (including orange roughy and Pacific rockfishes), right
whales, and long-lived marine molluscs; variable resilience to fishing
pressure among sharks; a review of population genetics in sharks; the
influence of catastrophes on the demographic trends of the endangered
Hawaiian monk seal; and lessons from sea turtle headstarting
programmes. Proceedings are being prepared for publication.
For more information contact American Fisheries Society, fax: (+1)
301 897 8096. Web page:
http://www.fisheries.org
(formerly www.esd.ornl.gov/societies/AFS).
From: Fisheries Information News, Vol 3 no. 2, July 1997.
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