A leader in conservation
Ali Hood , Director of Conservation at the Shark Trust , has been awarded the International Fund for Animal Welfare ( IFAW )’ s Marine Conservation Award for her outstanding dedication to protecting sharks . Ali has headed the conservation team at the Shark Trust for nearly 20 years and tirelessly works to secure management and protection for vulnerable shark and ray species , and to hold governments and industry to account for their commitments . IFAW ’ s 2021 Animal Action Awards honour those who have made incredible achievements in the animal welfare and conservation community .
Sharks in a changing world
Talk of ‘ new ’ shark species in UK waters overshadows far greater threats to the ecosystem , says Paul Cox of the Shark Trust
This month sees the latest global summit on climate change – COP26 . This time , of course , it ’ s on home soil so the build-up to this vital meeting gets a big slice of UK media attention . As the name implies , there have been plenty of these climate summits in previous years . They used to pass almost unnoticed . But , thankfully , climate change doesn ’ t drop out of the public eye as soon as the summit ends any more . It has crossed over into an everyday conversation .
So , I ’ m often getting asked about how sharks are affected by climate change . Usually , before I start to formulate my considered answer , it gets followed up with something about how many “ new sharks ” there are going to be in UK waters . And it ’ s seldom presented as a good thing . It ’ s like “ more sharks ” is up there with sea level rise , unpredictable weather events and flooding as the negative consequences of climate change .
The link between sharks and climate change is a bit more complex than ‘ water gets warmer , sharks move home ’. True , some sharks might be driven by shifts in their prey ’ s range . Their prey might , in turn , move due to changes to their own food availability . But it ’ s unpredictable . There were speculative reports a few years back about which species might be expected to arrive in the UK . These now get rolled out with alarming regularity by some sections of the press . With seemingly increasing degree of certainty . But they ’ re still based on speculation about a possible future .
There ’ s also emerging research about the impacts of climate change on sharks in terms of their reproduction , their behaviour and , through the effect of ocean acidification , on their skin . So “ more sharks ” is not guaranteed by any means .
And “ more sharks ” is no bad thing , given the current state of shark populations . Earlier this year we heard that populations of oceanic sharks have declined by 71 % in my lifetime . And in November , Red List scientists published a review of all sharks and ray conservation statuses . The result is that now a third , 391 species , of sharks and rays are considered to be threatened with extinction .
And what ’ s not speculation is what ’ s happening to sharks and rays right now . Just hard facts . The review above looked at the causes behind the declining conservation status of sharks . They found that overfishing was the major factor in 100 % of the 391 threatened species . 100 %. Climate was judged as a secondary factor in just 10 % of species . So , while climate change is part of the bigger picture for sharks , if we don ’ t deal with overfishing pretty soon , we might never see whether that speculation about sharks in UK waters turns out to have been accurate . www . sharktrust . org
Infographic c / o the Shark Trust
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