Study shows how sharks can thrive in areas where there are no fish, despite their low birth weight

Researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in London showed how sharks can thrive in locations where there are no fish and in fact had fewer siblings and smaller families than would be expected from a population of this size.

For their study, a team led by Dr James O'Leary (Cancer Research UK), Dr Paul Schiller (Bodkin Veterinary Hospital, Liverpool) and Dr Simon Brown (Welsh Cancer Research, Bournemouth) looked at the numbers of sharks and rays found on the coast of England. They found that sharks can thrive in areas where there are no fish and in fact had fewer siblings and smaller families than would be expected from a population of this size.

"Fishless fishing in these places results in a loss of the sharks, which is not an uncommon occurrence in shark habitats." said Dr O'Leary. "There is also the potential for sharks that live offshore to suffer from an increase in illness and other disease.

"We suspect that it may be because sharks that live offshore are able to be fished much younger and live to be around 20 or 40 years old."

They found that at the high tide levels, the number of sharks increased dramatically and the amount of water covered in their dorsal fin dropped from 6.5 million in 2007 to 1.25 million in 2015. In some areas, they were far smaller, reaching less than 20 millimetres.

"The loss of large sharks in these areas would likely have consequences in terms of other sharks and fish species in the region and the food web. The presence of large numbers of large, mature sharks would allow these fish to move up the food web while they were eating smaller, smaller prey," added Dr O'Leary.

"This result suggests that fishless fish are a threat in these areas, which would threaten shark populations and would certainly threaten the coastal habitats where some of these sharks live."

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The findings are published in the journal Oikos.

Media enquiries:

Jill Young

Communications Officer

Oriental Conservation and Research Council

+44 (0)1225 666069

jill.young@oci.org.uk
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