The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 9: June 1997
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No sharks at Chagos
Illustration © I.K. Fergusson.
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The Chagos Archipelago is a group of atolls, submerged reefs and
coral islands in the central Indian Ocean. The Chagos is administered
by Britain, and is uninhabited apart from a US military base on Diego
Garcia. It lies 500 km south of the Maldives and over 1,500 km from
anywhere else. A series of scientific diving expeditions to the Chagos
in the 1970s found large populations of reef sharks there. On many
dives dozens of sharks were seen, and it was often necessary to have
one member of each diving team assigned as a 'shark guard' to ward
off over-inquisitive sharks. After a break of 17 years another expedition
visited the Chagos in 1996. Instead of the expected hordes of reef
sharks, expedition members found minimal numbers. The cause of
this dramatic decline is fishing. Mauritian reef fishermen visit the
Chagos under licence from the British authorities. Sri Lankan fishermen
also visit, illegally. This decline suggests that 'isolation' is no longer
any protection for Indo-Pacific reef shark populations. A full report
on this issue, with semi-quantitative data from divers' logbook
records, will appear in the next issue of Shark News.
Charles Anderson
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