Monday March 17, 2025
EurekAlert! —
Despite the fear they may inspire in humans, sharks have far more reason to fear us. Nearly one-third of sharks are threatened with extinction globally, mostly as a result of fishing.
A team led by researchers at UC Santa Barbara discovered that mandates to release captured sharks won’t be enough to prevent the continued decline of these important ocean predators. These findings, published in Fish & Fisheries, highlight the importance of monitoring shark populations and combining different strategies for managing their numbers.
Some sharks are targeted by fisheries, but the pressure extends beyond these species. “More than half of sharks that are caught and killed in fisheries are captured incidentally and then discarded,” explained Darcy Bradley, co-author of the study and adjunct faculty at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and lead scientist at The Nature Conservancy.
Some species are protected by retention bans, issued by regional fisheries management organizations, which require fishermen to release an individual they catch rather than keep it. Currently, 17 oceanic shark species are covered by a retention ban to protect them from incidental catch in tuna fisheries.