News

A new study analysing the epaulette shark of Australia and New Guinea finds that this species shows no noticeable spike in metabolic rate during reproduction.

A team of researchers from the University of La Laguna has documented for the first time the presence of a live goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni), in the waters of the Canary Islands.

This month, scientists made a groundbreaking discovery: the sharks are not, in fact, blind. The newly published findings upend commonly held beliefs and expose the challenges of studying a shark that has long resisted the reaches of science. But the disruptive nature of the research also underscores the challenges scientists face in predicting how a rapidly changing climate might harm or help the elusive fish.

Numbers of critically-endangered flapper skate are beginning to recover in Scotland, new research has suggested.

The study, conducted by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, involved interviews with commercial fishers from all over Scotland, who reported a significant increase in flapper skate caught while fishing for other species over the past four years.

The limited range of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) offers reduced protection to vulnerable species such as the highly mobile silky shark (Carcharhinus falciformis). Threatened by commercial fisheries and the global fin trade, more research is needed to understand their movements and how to improve levels of protection,

I record our haul on the Shark Trust app, where the data is added to their Great Eggcase Hunt project. The cases we’re finding were laid by spotted and thornback rays (Raja montagui and Raja clavata), two of the commonest species around British coasts.

What the researchers found may be the largest known nursery of deep-sea skate eggs ever recorded. But that’s only the surface of the story.

Proposals up for consideration for Parties at CoP20, co-sponsored by more than 50 governments, centered some of the most imperiled shark and ray species in the world and represent the most ambitious and comprehensive suite of shark and ray protections ever brought to the convention.