Biology Faculty Articles

ORCID

0000-0002-3753-8950

ResearcherID

G-4080-2013

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Nature

ISSN

0028-0836

Publication Date

7-24-2019

Abstract

Effective ocean management and conservation of highly migratory species depends on resolving overlap between animal movements and distributions and fishing effort. Yet, this information is lacking at a global scale. Here we show, using a big-data approach combining satellite-tracked movements of pelagic sharks and global fishing fleets, that 24% of the mean monthly space used by sharks falls under the footprint of pelagic longline fisheries. Space use hotspots of commercially valuable sharks and of internationally protected species had the highest overlap with longlines (up to 76% and 64%, respectively) and were also associated with significant increases in fishing effort. We conclude that pelagic sharks have limited spatial refuge from current levels of high-seas fishing effort. Results demonstrate an urgent need for conservation and management measures at high-seas shark hotspots and highlight the potential of simultaneous satellite surveillance of megafauna and fishers as a tool for near-real time, dynamic management.

DOI

10.1038/s41586-019-1444-4

First Page

1

Last Page

23

Comments

©The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2019

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