Earlier this month the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks
Board in Durban played host to the 2ndSharks International
conference; a gathering of the world’s leading shark and ray researchers to
update and share the results of their current findings. Oceans Research
Director Enrico Gennari and I were in attendance and presented some of our
current research to over 270 delegates from 37 countries. The conference was an
overwhelming success with 169 oral presentations and 52 posters spread
throughout the weeklong event. David Shiffman, expert on all
things Twitter, provided the ‘official’ reporting from the field, and many more
contributed to over 7000 tweets at #Sharks14. For those of you that missed out
on the action, David has taken a break from the conference dance floor and compiled
a collection of selected tweets from the event here. What follows is a
brief recap of the event.
The conference was opened with a message
from MEC for Economic Development and Environmental Affairs, Michael
Mabuyakhulu who reiterated the value of shark education for the economy of
South Africa, and encouraged all in attendance to visitand spend their foreign
currencies at Durban’s magnificent Gateway Theatre of Shopping. Dave Ebert, of
the Pacific Shark Research Center in Moss Landing, California was the plenary
speaker for the day and reiterated the value of morphological taxonomy in light
of emerging modern tools like genetic microsatellites. Ebert has close ties to
South Africa having completed his PhD studies at Rhodes University, and noted
that southern Africa is one of the world’s hotspots for shark and ray
biodiversity with a rich history of species discovery, but a surprising lack of
young scientists currently training in
species taxonomy. The rest of the day saw many of our colleagues presenting
their work on white sharks in South Africa, with notable talks from Alison Kock
presenting the culmination of her PhD on sexual segregation in False Bay, and
Enrico Gennari, presenting his PhD on the metabolism and behaviour of the white
shark in Mossel Bay.
Despite the unsuccessful efforts of a small
group of protestors to disrupt the proceedings of Day 1, Day 2 began unimpeded
with a plenary from Demian Chapman. Chapman shared his team’s genetic work on
identifying species and populations of sharks traded on the shark fin market, noting
that the potentially endangered guitarfish could be one of the highest value
species on the market. In addition to identifying which populations are most
affected by the fin trade, Chapman’s team also trains customs officials to
identify fins that are illegal to trade. Notable talks from Day 2 included
those from the genetics department at Stellenbosch University, and the plethora
of Telemetry talks from the likes of Steven Campana, Philip Doherty, Neil
Hammerschlag, and Christoph Rohner. And naturally, my talk on the lifetime of
SPOT tag technology her in South Africa, for which we received some coverage in
the local
paper.
On Day 3 the organisers saw fit to provide
us with a much needed mid-conference break from the overload of day-time
academia and night-time socialising. Many delegates spent the day diving at
nearby Aliwal Shoal or on game drives at some of the area’s private reserves.
Rumours of an out-of-season Whale Shark spotting spread quickly, leaving those
that opted out of any tours green with jealousy.
Day 4 picked up right where we left off on
Tuesday with a plenary from Colin Simpfendorfer of James Cook University in
Australia. Simpfendorfer shared recent findings that upwards of 25% of shark
and ray species are threatened with extinction, and almost half are listed as
‘Data Deficient’. Much of the focus has been on shark populations but rays are
bearing much of the brunt. #RaysNeedLove2. For some parts of the developing
world, shark fishing is a matter of survival, and some of these species can be sustainably
fished, but only with sound, science-based management. Ultimately it is a lack
of scientific understanding that makes fisheries management difficult. The days
professional and student talks were dominated by the fisheries theme, but the
standout talks for me were those from Shaun Collin’s lab of sensory biologists
at UWA: Kara Yopak, Ryan Kempster, Laura Ryan, and Lucille Chapuis. And of
course our colleagues in False Bay and Gansbaai speaking on the population
ecology of the white shark.
And lastly, Day 5 began with an
entertaining plenary by University of Windsor’s Nigel Hussey who spoke about
the growing field of trophic ecology. Stable isotopes in elasmobranch tissues
can be used to reveal the entire story of a shark’s diet, revealing a much
wider range of diets on both the individual and species levels. The first
Sharks International conference in Cairns, Australia featured 2 presentations
on Stable isotope research. This year there was an entire plenary and themed
section on trophic ecology research. Friday also saw an entire presentation
section dedicated to research on the severely threatened sawfish, perhaps one
of South Africa’s first marine extinctions. Other notable talks were those on
shark attack mitigation and shark control measures, with a particular standout
for me from Francesco Ferretti and his talk on modelling shark attack data
along the California coast.
The close of another successful Sharks
International was celebrated Friday night with a gala dinner and dancing, where
awards were handed out, and the announcement was made that the Brazilian Shark
and Ray research community, SBEEL, will be the host of Sharks International
2018. Looking forward to seeing you all again in 4 years in João Pessoa!
Dylan Irion
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