First satellite track of a juvenile shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) in the Mediterranean Sea
| dc.contributor.author | Shea, Brendan D. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Chapple, Taylor K. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Echwikhi, Khaled | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Gambardella, Chiara | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Jenrette, Jeremy F. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Moro, Stefano | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Schallert, Robert J. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Block, Barbara A. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Ferretti, Francesco | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-12-10T19:33:50Z | en |
| dc.date.available | 2024-12-10T19:33:50Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-12-09 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | The shortfin mako shark (<i>Isurus oxyrinchus</i>) is a highly mobile, coastal littoral, and epipelagic oceanic species broadly distributed in tropical, subtropical, and temperate seas worldwide (Rigby et al., 2019). In recent years, there has been growing recognition of the impacts of overfishing on shortfin mako populations, and the species is now listed as Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (Rigby et al., 2019). The species is listed as Critically Endangered in the Mediterranean Sea due to long-term and continuing exploitation coupled with inadequate management (Walls and Soldo, 2016). Of particular concern is the ongoing capture of juvenile mako sharks in the Central Mediterranean and the Strait of Sicily, which have been identified as potential nursery areas (Walls and Soldo, 2016; Cattano et al., 2023; Mancusi et al., 2023). Even with significant declines in pelagic sharks regionally (Ferretti et al., 2008), sharks continue to be occasionally targeted in the Mediterranean Sea, though the most critical risk to shark populations in the region is bycatch in other fisheries (Bradai et al., 2018; Carpentieri et al., 2021). In the Mediterranean, most fishers typically retain their shark bycatch, with some estimates of shark discard rates as low as 1% (Megalofonou et al., 2005) even for protected species, though discard rates are likely to vary by season and gear (Carpentieri et al., 2021). Despite their imperiled status, shortfin mako sharks remain one of the region’s commonly encountered sharks for fishers, especially for longlines (Carpentieri et al., 2021), and sharks are typically retained despite falling under regional protections such as the Bern Convention, Bonn Convention, and Barcelona Convention (Serena et al., 2014). Of additional concern is the relatively unmonitored recreational fishery, which may additionally encounter high numbers of shortfin mako sharks, many of Frontiers in which are retained, but the scale of this fishery is not well known (Udovičić et al., 2019; Panayiotou et al., 2020). Concerningly, young-of-the-year (YOY) and juvenile specimens comprise the bulk of captured individuals reported in the Mediterranean (Saidi et al., 2019; Udovičić et al., 2019; Panayiotou et al., 2020; Cattano et al., 2023; Mancusi et al., 2023; Scacco et al., 2023). Given the life history of shortfin mako sharks, particularly their advanced age at maturity (Natanson et al., 2020), this frequent and ongoing capture of juvenile sharks represents a severe threat to regional populations, as many sharks will never reach maturity, let alone successfully reproduce. These losses highlight the need for more detailed information regarding the movement patterns and space use of juvenile shortfin mako sharks, for which little is known in the Mediterranean. In recent years, a proliferation of telemetry studies has drastically improved our understanding of themovements and space use of large marine predators like shortfin mako sharks around the globe (Queiroz et al., 2019); however, virtually no study has focused on Mediterranean populations, especially sharks. Here, we report the satellite track from a pop-off archival tag (PAT) deployed on a juvenile shortfin mako shark in the Mediterranean Sea in May 2023. To our knowledge, this track represents the first satellite tag deployed on a shortfin mako shark in the Mediterranean Sea. We describe the horizontal and vertical movements the study shark performed over 54 days at liberty (DAL), discussing potential drivers for the observed movements and the implications of the track for the conservation of shortfin mako sharks regionally. | en |
| dc.description.version | Published version | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | Shea BD, Chapple TK, Echwikhi K, Gambardella C, Jenrette JF, Moro S, Schallert RJ, Block BA and Ferretti F (2024) First satellite track of a juvenile shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) in the Mediterranean Sea. Front. Mar. Sci. 11:1423507. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1423507 | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2024.1423507 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10919/123771 | en |
| dc.identifier.volume | 11 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Frontiers | en |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | telemetry | en |
| dc.subject | elasmobranchs | en |
| dc.subject | conservation | en |
| dc.subject | sharks | en |
| dc.subject | Central Mediterranean | en |
| dc.title | First satellite track of a juvenile shortfin mako shark (<i>Isurus oxyrinchus</i>) in the Mediterranean Sea | en |
| dc.title.serial | Frontiers in Marine Science | en |
| dc.type | Article - Refereed | en |
| dc.type.dcmitype | Text | en |