Search

Many shark populations have experienced severe declines in the past few decades due to increased demand for their products. As fisheries managers, conservation biologists, and other invested groups move to develop new conservation measures to better protect sharks it will be important to understand the potential reactions (behaviors) local fishermen will have to new regulations. To determine the potential behaviors local artisanal fishermen in Costa Rica would have toward new conservation measures for sharks a structured survey (n=72) was distributed to several fishing communities along Costa Rica's Pacific coast. Overall, 89% of fishermen felt that protecting sharks was important with 97% stating a willingness to support shark conservation. However, support dropped to 67% if they would have to change some of their fishing practices. Almost all fishermen surveyed (93%) were in support of the formation of marine protected areas (MPAs). Although, if MPAs restricted their current fishing practices support dropped to between 6% and 65% depending on the restrictiveness of regulations implemented in the MPA. The majority (86%) of the fishermen surveyed also indicated they would be more likely to support new legislative measures to protect sharks if they were included in the decision making process. The results suggest that artisanal fishermen in Costa Rica are willing to protect sharks, but only if their current fishing practices are minimally impacted. It is therefore important that mangers work with these communities to develop management plans that will provide the best protection possible for sharks while also garnering local support to ensure continued compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elasmobranchs represent one of the most imperiled taxa, yet few nations have developed catch limits and no international or bilateral catch limits exist. One barrier to establishing catch limits is a lack of accurate species-specific extraction rates due to many species looking similar, distinguishing characteristics (fins and head) being removed, or grouping of all elasmobranchs together in fisheries data. To better understand the species-specific impacts fisheries are having on elasmobranchs we used forensic genetic techniques to identify the types and quantities of shark species landed in Costa Rican artisanal small-scale and mid-scale fisheries. We collected elasmobranch tissue samples from fishermen in three locations along Costa Rica's Pacific Coast: Coyote, Bejuco, and Ojochal, from April 2013 to September 2014. We used DNA barcoding techniques, utilizing a 1044 base pair region of the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 gene, to identify to species 275 of the 416 samples collected. Within these fisheries, seven species of shark and one ray were identified, with the scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini) accounting for ∼75−80% of all sharks landed. Observed total lengths (TL) for the scalloped hammerhead shark (10.9–99 cm) in these fisheries suggests the sharks sampled were all either juveniles or neonates. Based on these data it is likely that the areas from which these samples were collected represent nursery grounds for the scalloped hammerhead shark. The quantity of young scalloped hammerhead sharks removed from these areas, and ones similar to them, by these artisanal fisheries could be of great importance when determining future conservation measures for this species. Our findings also indicate that sharks caught in these artisanal fisheries do not appear to represent those sold in markets around San Jose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]