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Diversity
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Biology and Ecology of Sharks and Their Relatives: New Insights...
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Biology and Ecology of Sharks and Their Relatives: New Insights for a Correct Management and Conservation

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Diversity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 February 2024) | Viewed by 6309

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Massimiliano Bottaro

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Italian National Institute for Marine Biology, Ecology and Biotechnology, Naples, Italy
Interests: biodiversity; chondrichthyans; conservation biology; marine biology; marine ecology; fish biology; fisheries

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Chondrichthyans are one of the most threatened marine taxa worldwide, being highly susceptible to anthropogenic pressure, both in coastal and offshore environments. In particular, the main factor affecting these vulnerable animals is by-catch (incidental capture), which needs to be reduced to correctly manage and conserve cartilaginous fishes. However, assessing, protecting, and managing chondrichthyan populations is problematic, due to the limited information on their biology, ecology, fisheries and on human impact on them in general.

The aim of this Special Issue is to host innovative and original contributions on cartilaginous fishes, in order to improve the scientific knowledge on these marine vertebrates. It should further support the decision makers to develop concrete measures to conserve and manage sharks and their relatives efficiently, and in accordance with international conventions and directives.

On behalf of the Editorial Board of Diversity, I am really glad to invite you to submit your research articles on distribution, trophic ecology, reproduction and life cycle, growth, fishery biology (including possible methods for by-catch mitigation) and ecotoxicology, in order to better understand the biological traits and life style of sharks and their relatives in relation to the impact of human activities on them and how to reduce it.

Dr. Massimiliano Bottaro
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Biodiversity
  • Chondrichthyans
  • Conservation
  • Ecology
  • Marine ecosystem management

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 2952 KiB  
Article
Bioenergetic Model of the Highly Exploited Shark Mustelus schmitti under a Global Warming Context
by Juan Manuel Molina, Seokjin Yoon, Mariano Elisio and Akihide Kasai
Diversity 2023, 15(11), 1118; https://doi.org/10.3390/d15111118 - 27 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1286
Abstract
Bioenergetic models are tools that allow the evaluation of the effect of environmental variables on fish growth. Successful implementation of this approach has been achieved in a few elasmobranch species. Our objective was to develop a bioenergetic model for Mustelus schmitti. The [...] Read more.
Bioenergetic models are tools that allow the evaluation of the effect of environmental variables on fish growth. Successful implementation of this approach has been achieved in a few elasmobranch species. Our objective was to develop a bioenergetic model for Mustelus schmitti. The model developed showed a good fit to the field data available and accurately described the growth of this species. The practical example developed in this study provides novel population estimates of prey consumption and daily ration for the species. Results also indicate that this species would be susceptible to the effects of climate change. In the simulated climate change scenarios, the energy budget of M. schmitti was significantly altered, with increased food consumption and impaired growth. While there exists a number of limitations for the model developed in this article, namely its limitation to immature individuals, and its restricted temperature model, it provides an important tool for the management of this and other shark populations under heavy exploitation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biology and Ecology of Sharks and Their Relatives: New Insights for a Correct Management and Conservation)
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15 pages, 2588 KiB  
Article
Human–Shark Interactions: Citizen Science Potential in Boosting Shark Research on Madeira Island
by Luís Berimbau, Ander Larrea, Ana Cristina Costa and Paulo Torres
Diversity 2023, 15(10), 1062; https://doi.org/10.3390/d15101062 - 4 Oct 2023
Viewed by 2965
Abstract
Sharks are regularly considered to be an indicator of the ocean ecosystem’s health and are generally difficult to study in their natural environment. Citizen science has been increasing, being a cost-effective method for particularly important species that have low encounter rates or are [...] Read more.
Sharks are regularly considered to be an indicator of the ocean ecosystem’s health and are generally difficult to study in their natural environment. Citizen science has been increasing, being a cost-effective method for particularly important species that have low encounter rates or are logistically challenging to sample. Madeira Island has a considerable gap in terms of its coastal shark species data and studies, which this work aims to complement. To achieve this goal, online questionnaires to citizens and specific interviews of spearfishers were conducted, with questions related to species size, distribution, and behaviour. Exactly 129 reports of shark sightings were obtained, including seven different species exhibiting four different types of behaviour around the coastal areas of the different municipalities of Madeira Island. Individuals seem to aggregate around the east and west edges of the island due to localised upwelling phenomena. Also, a relation was found between size and distance to coast and depth, as smaller sharks tend to stay close to the shore, probably reflecting the role of Madeira as a nursery area, but further studies are necessary to confirm the reliability of this hypothesis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biology and Ecology of Sharks and Their Relatives: New Insights for a Correct Management and Conservation)
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16 pages, 4785 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Relative Vulnerability of Chondrichthyan Species as Bycatch Using Spatially Reported Catch Data Series
by Marcelo Reis and Will F. Figueira
Diversity 2023, 15(6), 752; https://doi.org/10.3390/d15060752 - 8 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1122
Abstract
Fishery impacts pose threats not only to target species, but also to bycatch species. Nevertheless, choosing priorities for conservation or research in fisheries is often driven by economic value and most retained bycatch species such as sharks and rays have been historically of [...] Read more.
Fishery impacts pose threats not only to target species, but also to bycatch species. Nevertheless, choosing priorities for conservation or research in fisheries is often driven by economic value and most retained bycatch species such as sharks and rays have been historically of low profit. Traditional stock assessments usually require large quantities of data, financial support, and feasible study conditions. The multi-species nature of Chondrichthyan catch along with their relatively lower value and sparsity of fishery-independent data creates significant challenges to developing accurate impact predictions. This study introduces a novel technique to quantify the relative vulnerability of Chondrichthyan species taken as bycatch. The approach is based on spatial interactions between species and fishing activity (termed here the fishery interaction index, or FII) and is correlated to metrics of productivity. A database of 15 years of fisheries logbooks was used to apply the method to 20 bycatch sharks and target species in one of the largest fishing sectors of Australia’s EEZ. Overall vulnerability based on the FII-productivity combinations obtained was found to agree considerably with the IUCN status of the assessed species, with only a few exceptions that reflected the local status differing from the general global assessments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biology and Ecology of Sharks and Their Relatives: New Insights for a Correct Management and Conservation)
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