The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 13: July 2001
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Meetings
Tagging and tracking marine fish with electronic devices
7-11 February 2000, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Marine fishes are tagged and tracked with a suite of different electronic devices of varying degrees of sophistication. In the past 5 years, these devices have yielded an impressive amount of information. This symposium reviewed this information and identify future research challenges.
There were sessions on the results of tagging and tracking work to date, tracking with acoustic tags, automated monitors, geo-locating archival tags, pop-off devices, 'cross-over' studies, unresolved problems, remote recovery of data, geolocation algorithms, data management and GIS, integration of results, fish mortality vs. tag mortality, future developments, applications from other fields, new sensors, fish tracking data archive, and applications to fishery management, including behavior in stock assessment.
Papers will be published in the forthcoming 2001 special issue of Reviews in Fish and Fisheries Biology.
International Pelagic Shark Workshop
February 14-17, 2000, Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, California, USA. Presented by the Ocean Wildlife Campaign.
Pelagic sharks are targeted by commercial and recreational fisheries worldwide and are taken in large numbers in the bycatch of other fisheries. However, little information exists about trends in abundance or their ability to withstand fishing pressure. Because of their highly migratory nature, data on catches, indices of abundance, and life history parameters from all major pelagic shark fishing countries are required in order to effectively manage these fisheries.
This workshop began to compile the information and expertise needed for pelagic shark management in the Atlantic and Pacific.
Its objectives were:
- to collate all available biological and fishery data for pelagic sharks that are subject to fisheries;
- to evaluate the potential for assessing various pelagic shark populations;
- to identify additional data and analyses required for assessment and for the purposes of fishery management; and
- to publish the proceedings in a peer-reviewed volume.
Working group papers and posters were presented on the following:
Trends in Abundance of Pelagic Sharks and History of their Fisheries. Case studies of pelagic shark fisheries, focusing on the data that are necessary to prepare a fishery management plan.
Life History, Stock Structure and Movement. Life history, intrinsic rates of increase, and genetics and tagging as indicators of stock structure and migration.
Assessment Methods and Management Strategies for Pelagic Sharks. Assessment and management methods appropriate to the particular needs of pelagic sharks.
The bibliography prepared for this meeting is available on the SSG website (see address on p. 1). Proceedings are in preparation.
Shark Conference 2000
21-24 February 2000, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Organised by WildAid, the Hawaiian Audubon Society and the Western Pacific Fisheries Coalition, to bring together some of the world's experts on sharks in order to compile the current knowledge of shark populations worldwide and the effects of over-fishing, excessive by-catch, environmental factors and the finning industry. To read the full report and find out more about WildAid's campaign, please visit http://www.wildaid.org.
Sustainable Management of Sharks and Rays in West Africa
26-28 April 2000, Saint-Louis, Senegal.
This workshop was organised by FIBA (International Foundation of "Banc d'Arguin') in collaboration with WWF and IUCN. The aims were to promote a regional policy for shark and ray fisheries, to identify priorities for research and to define recommendations for the sustainable exploitation of sharks and rays in West Africa. The critical situation of shark fisheries in the region and the drastic depletion in shark populations was discussed, and a number of recommendations proposed. Among these, the principle of full utilisation of shark catches and the constraint of landing sharks intact with their fins were unanimously adopted.
These recommendations will form the basis for a regional Plan of Action for Sharks. SSG member Bernard Seret attended the workshop and new SSG member (now appointed Regional Vice-Chair) Mathieu Ducrocq was recruited and will be taking the lead in West Africa on behalf of the SSG. We look forward to working with him on the Plan of Action and other elasmobranch conservation and management issues.
4th Annual Meeting of the European Elasmobranch Society
28-30 September 2000, Livorno, Italy.
This EEA meeting helped turn the spotlight on Mediterranean sharks and rays - very little is known about these species, yet it is likely many are endangered. ICRAM (the Italian Central Institute for Applied Marine Research) presented their National Shark Assessment - in fact the first such in Europe. The EEA participants endorsed the aims of the FAO IPOA for all shark species, congratulated the initiative of ICRAM and offered the support and expertise of the EEA to other Member States of the European Commission for the development and implementation of national and European Shark-plans.
Brazilian Elasmobranch Society/Sociedade Brasileira Para o Estudo dos Elasmobranquios (SBEEL)
City of Santos-SP, November 2000.
The SBEEL meeting offered a great opportunity for discussions on the diversity of elasmobranch species along the Brazilian coast; distribution, reproduction and growth; freshwater stingrays; fisheries and conservation strategies. Ninety-four oral and poster presentations, small conferences and special topics of discussion were presented by 200 researchers and students from Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, USA, UK and Chile. The abstracts are available (mostly in Portuguese). Please contact Getulio Rincon: rincon@brazilmail.com or zazan143@bsb.zaz.com.br.
6th Indo-Pacific Fish Conference
Durban, South Africa, 20-25 May 2001
Symposia were held with themes including pelagic, chondrichthyan, coastal, and reef fishes. Secretariat, 6th IPFC, Oceanographic Research Institute, PO Box 10712, Marine Parade, 4056 Durban, South Africa. Fax: +27 31 337 2132. Email: seaworld@dbn.lia.net The SSG held a meeting during the conference, the minutes of which will be posted on the SSG website in due course.
IFAW African Shark Conservation Workshop
Cape Town, South Africa, 30 May - 3 June 2001
The workshop was attended by delegates from many African nations as well as SSG and IFAW representatives. Themes included shark management and threats, research priorities and legislation.
Please contact Ntombentsha Nkwentsha, IFAW South Africa office for details. Fax: +27 21 465 6838. Email: nnkwentsha@ifaw.org
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