Regional Training on the Identification Training of Sharks and Rays

About This Event

Sharks, rays and their relatives (Class Chondrichthyes) are the world’s most threatened species groups. Their elevated extinction risks are products of high levels of fishing mortality in both target and by-catch fisheries. These species have relatively slow growth and low reproductive rates which make most of them particularly vulnerable to overfishing. Due to its vulnerability, several species of sharks and rays have been listed in the annexes of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and additional species are proposed to be listed.

Coral Triangle region is a global priority area for threatened species and marine species conservation including sharks and rays, since it is both a hotspot for species diversity and fishing pressure.  Sharks and rays populations decline leads to ecological imbalance, causing food webs to alter and prey behaviour to change. The main driver of significant decline in sharks and rays population is a combination of sharks and rays fishing, due to their valuable fins, skins, and gills and low reproduction cycle.  Along with it, there is insufficient sharks and rays catch data for most parts of the world fisheries. The absence of this data gives very significant impact on regulating utilization and could result in overexploitation and extinction of wild populations.

With growing concern regarding the sustainability of sharks and rays fisheries and trade, monitoring data at the level of sharks and rays landing is important to do, as well as identifying the fishing efforts taken. The combination between data of number of sharks and rays landed and the number of fishing vessels used termed as Catch per Unit Effort (CPUE). CPUE is an indirect measure of the abundance of a target species. Thus, through the CPUE we could predict trend of population sharks and rays in wild, whether decrease, increase and/or overexploited. In relation to this, CTI-CFF through Threatened Species Working Group with support from Wildlife Conservation Society will conduct an Identification Training on Sharks and Rays: Species Visual ID and Design monitoring at Landing Site.