Linking extinction risk to the economic and nutritional value of sharks in small-scale fisheries.

Autor: Temple AJ; School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.; Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia., Berggren P; School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK., Jiddawi N; Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania., Wambiji N; Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, Mombasa, Kenya., Poonian CNS; Community Centred Conservation, London, UK., Salmin YN; Tropical Research Centre for Oceanography, Environment and Natural Resources, The State University of Zanzibar, Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania., Berumen ML; Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia., Stead SM; School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.; Faculty of Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.; Australian Institute of Marine Sciences, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology [Conserv Biol] 2024 May 16, pp. e14292. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 May 16.
DOI: 10.1111/cobi.14292
Abstrakt: To achieve sustainable shark fisheries, it is key to understand not only the biological drivers and environmental consequences of overfishing, but also the social and economic drivers of fisher behavior. The extinction risk of sharks is highest in coastal tropical waters, where small-scale fisheries are most prevalent. Small-scale fisheries provide a critical source of economic and nutritional security to coastal communities, and these fishers are among the most vulnerable social and economic groups. We used Kenya's and Zanzibar's small-scale shark fisheries, which are illustrative of the many data-poor, small-scale shark fisheries worldwide, as case studies to explore the relationship between extinction risk and the economic and nutritional value of sharks. To achieve this, we combined existing data on shark landings, extinction risk, and nutritional value with sales data at 16 key landing sites and information from interviews with 476 fishers. Shark fisheries were an important source of economic and nutritional security, valued at >US$4 million annually and providing enough nutrition for tens of thousands of people. Economically and nutritionally, catches were dominated by threatened species (72.7% and 64.6-89.7%, respectively). The most economically valuable species were large and slow to reproduce (e.g. mobulid rays, wedgefish, and bull, silky, and mako sharks) and therefore more likely to be threatened with extinction. Given the financial incentive and intensive fishing pressure, small-scale fisheries are undoubtedly major contributors to the decline of threatened coastal shark species. In the absence of effective fisheries management and enforcement, we argue that within small-scale fisheries the conditions exist for an economically incentivized feedback loop in which vulnerable fishers are driven to persistently overfish vulnerable and declining shark species. To protect these species from extinction, this feedback loop must be broken.
(© 2024 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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