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A14 LOCAL
Monday 1 July 2019

At least ten reef-associated shark species in the Dutch Caribbean

Save Our Sharks Project. in our waters are acciden- search as part of DCNA’s
The most common species tal bycatch, habitat deg- SOS Project established a
are the nurse shark and radation and the risk of a baseline for current shark
the Caribbean reef shark. shark fin market develop- diversity, distribution, abun-
Overall, more sharks were ing, which would lead to dance, spatial behaviour
observed in conservation targeted fishing of sharks. and population structure
areas than in unprotected for inshore reefs around the
areas, highlighting the im- We need healthy oceans Dutch Caribbean islands.
portance of these zones in and healthy oceans need
shark conservation. sharks There were two methods
Sharks keep our oceans used by the researchers to
More than 100 million sharks healthy. These top preda- study sharks. One method
are killed each year as a tors remove sick or weak used Baited Remote Under-
result of fishing and shark members of their prey water Video (BRUV) which
finning activities, twice the populations. A decrease used a device consisting
rate at which they can re- in number of sharks leads of two cameras set in front
produce. The demand for to a disturbed natural bal- of a baited feed bag. The
fins and other shark prod- ance in the sea. This can idea is that as sharks come
Nurse shark on the Saba Bank which is part of the Yarari Marine ucts has driven a number affect the overall fish popu- near the bait bag to feed,
Mammal and Shark Sanctuary. of species close to extinc- lation, and good fish stocks video footage can be
Photo credit: Hans Leijnse (SHAPE/DCNA) tion. Sharks are especially are not only important for collected to identify and
vulnerable to overfishing fishermen that depend on count local shark popula-
WAGENINGEN, THE NETHER- cies in the Dutch Caribbean and habitat degradation fishing but also for (dive) tions. The other method
LANDS — Wageningen Ma- in a recent published study as they are late to mature tourism and the local com- was acoustic telemetry to
rine Research reported ten as part of Dutch Caribbean and produce few young. munity. track sharks. In this method,
reef-associated shark spe- Nature Alliance (DCNA)’s The main threats to sharks a small acoustic tracking
Respect, not fear, sharks device is implanted within
Sharks are some of the the shark. Acoustic receiv-
most misunderstood spe- ers are installed at specific
cies. For generations sharks locations, and whenever
had an undeserved bad sharks with these transmit-
reputation. People tend to ters travel near the receiver
see them as terrifying ani- (within a range of 450 to
mals that pose a danger 850 metres) they are re-
to everything that swims in corded.
the ocean, including hu-
mans. But we now know The first studies using BRUV
that is very far from the were conducted on Saba,
truth; these magnificent Saba Bank and St. Eustatius
creatures are essential to to better understand the
healthy oceans and risks to local population of sharks
humans are small. and rays and their relative
abundances, and were
DCNA’s Save Our Sharks funded by the Dutch Gov-
Project ernment. Starting in 2015,
There is a lack of knowl- as part of the SOS project,
edge concerning the dis- additional studies were
tribution and abundance conducted to include the
of shark and ray species waters around Bonaire, Cu-
throughout the Dutch Ca- raçao and Sint Maarten.
ribbean. To combat this In 2017 a BRUV survey was
knowledge gap, from 2015- done at Aruba, financed
2018, DCNA ran the “Save by Global Finprint.
our Sharks” (SOS) project
for the Dutch Caribbean, In addition, as part of the
funded by the Dutch Post- SOS project, acoustic te-
code Lottery. In this project lemetry was also used to
DCNA collaborated with lo- better understand the
cal fisherman and scientists movements of sharks,
and aimed to build popu- habitat use, migration and
lar support for shark and connectivity between is-
ray conservation amongst lands. The telemetry study
the local community, as tracked two shark species,
well as increasing knowl- Caribbean reef shark (Car-
edge about shark and ray charhinus perezi) and nurse
species within the region shark (Ginglymostoma cir-
by conducting a number ratum) around Saba (from
of research projects. 2014) and then around
Saba Bank, Sint Maarten
Shark Research and Sint Eustatius (from
A recently published study 2015).
by Wageningen Marine Re- Continued on Page 15