SSC Specialist Group Profile: The Shark Specialist Group (SSG) Profile

The first of the IUCN/SSC Specialist Groups profiled is the Shark Specialist Group (SSG). With its 130 members working around the world, the SSG takes the lead on achieving improved conservation and management of elasmobranchs - sharks, rays, and skates.

Shark Group overview  
The members  
The species

Overview of the Shark Specialist Group (SSG)
The SSG is currently compiling Sharks, Rays and Chimaeras: the Status of the Chondrichthyan Fishes which will be the most comprehensive resource documenting the worldwide threat to sharks, and will provide the "big picture" in terms of conservation needs. Members are also involved in work associated with the implementation of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) International Plan of Action for Shark Conservation and Management (IPOA-Sharks). Members are being increasingly called on to contribute to FAO technical consultations and workshops, and to provide advice to States and regional management bodies seeking to develop Shark Plans. Regional shark management training workshops are being organised by the SSG to raise awareness and generate momentum towards implementing the IPOA-Sharks.

SSG members will also be closely involved with assessment of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) shark listing proposals and trade reviews for future Conferences of the Parties. The Group is also responsible for completing Red List assessments for the more than 1,000 species of chondrichthyan (cartilaginous) fish during the next three years.

To find out more see the Group's website

SSG Member Profiles
Colin Simpfendorfer PhD, SSG member, Northwest Atlantic Regional Group
Colin is a population biologist who has been studying sharks for over 15 years having gained his BSc and PhD in Zoology from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. His PhD research investigated the life history of small coastal sharks and nursery area use. After completing his doctorate, he worked for the Fisheries Department of Western Australia, leading a team investigating commercial shark fisheries. In 1998 he moved to the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida where he is currently a Research Scientist and Manager of the Elasmobranch Fisheries and Conservation Biology Program. Colin's research concentrates on the population biology of sharks and rays, and currently focuses on the smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata) in US waters, a species listed as Critically Endangered in the western Atlantic. The smalltooth sawfish population in US waters has been decimated by years of commercial and recreational fishing, habitat loss and a vulnerable life history. While historically common through most of the Gulf of Mexico and lower east coast, the species is poorly known, making the development of conservation plans challenging. In response to this, the Mote Marine Laboratory sawfish research project assesses the current status of the population and provides resource managers with information to help in the development of conservation plans. "The challenge to me as a scientist is to collect biological data that will help understand and save these magnificent animals before they disappear from the world's oceans," says Colin.

Rachel Cavanagh, PhD, Shark Specialist Group Programme Officer
Rachel has a First Class BSc (Hons) degree in Zoology from the University of Liverpool (UK). After graduation she worked for Frontier (an environmental expedition organisation), firstly as a volunteer Research Assistant in the Mafia Island marine park in Tanzania carring out coral reef and fisheries surveys, and later as Communications Officer for the organisation. Following this, Rachel worked at Dr Sonny Gruber's research station in Bimini, The Bahamas, carrying out field work on the ecology of lemon sharks. On returning from Bimini, Rachel was a volunteer on the SSG project on elasmobranch biodiversity, conservation, and management, based in Sabah, East Malaysia, funded by the UK Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species. There she was part of the team responsible for the rediscovery of the Borneo River Shark. She later co-organised an elasmobranch research expedition to Sarawak, and became one of the first members of the UK-based Shark Trust. Rachel recently gained a PhD in Ecology from the University of Liverpool, and is delighted to have returned to the field of elasmobranch conservation, where her main interests and enthusiasm lie. Since joining the SSG as Programme Officer in 2001, she has been involved in a wide range of activities, including editing the Global Shark Status Report, compiling the newsletter Shark News, working on CITES issues, coordinating Red List assessments, fundraising, and carrying out day-to-day administration and communication. Rachel has always had a strong interest in marine biology but her particular passion for sharks began whilst working in Tanzania "Sharks face so many problems, not just because of their commercial value, but the intrinsic fear they instil in the public. I want to help dispel some of the myths surrounding sharks and rays and raise awareness of their more fascinating qualities and the important biological role they play," says Rachel.

Sarah Fowler, MSc, Shark Specialist Group Co-Chair
Sarah has worked as a marine ecologist and biodiversity conservation expert for more than 20 years, initially with the former UK government agency, the Nature Conservancy Council, and since 1990 with Naturebureau International. She has commissioned and managed research into sharks, and has personally developed and run projects in the UK and around the world. Sarah has been involved in managing the Shark Specialist Group since its establishment and her appointment as Deputy Chair in 1991, and is currently Co-Chair with Dr John Musick of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (USA). Sarah has represented the Shark Specialist Group at many international fora, including CITES and FAO. In addition to general management of the SSG, Sarah has been responsible for launching, co-editing and producing Shark News and for coordinating the elasmobranch assessments for publication in the IUCN Red List from 1996 to 2000. She developed and led a UK government Darwin Initiative-funded Shark Specialist Group project on elasmobranch biodiversity and conservation in Sabah, East Malaysia (see the SSG website for details of the newly-published proceedings). Sarah has a First Class Joint Honours BSc in Zoology with Marine Zoology from Bangor (the University College of North Wales), an MSc in Conservation from University College London, and is a founder member of the Institute for Ecology and Environmental Management. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Marine Conservation Society and is currently a Trustee of the Shark Trust (a UK registered charity) and President of the European Elasmobranch Association. Sarah was responsible for founding both of the latter two organisations. She has recently been appointed as a member of the Marine Stewardship Council's Stakeholder Council.


Species Profiles (taken from an article written by Rachel Cavanagh and Sarah Fowler for the IUCN magazine World Conservation).
Sharks - fished to death
Elasmobranchs belong to the Class Chondrichthyes, an ancient group of fishes with skeletons of cartilage and teeth of modified scales. Until recently, very few elasmobranchs had been assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The 1996 Red List included only 32, but in 1999, assessments were prepared for over 100 species for inclusion in the 2000 IUCN Red List. There is still a long way to go, however, before we have a balanced overview of the approximately 1,000 species. The 2000 Red List has 19 species in the Vulnerable category, 17 in Endangered and 4 in Critically Endangered. Among those of particular concern are the basking shark and sawfishes.

Basking shark
At up to 10m in length, this plankton-feeding shark (Cetorhinus maximus), named for its habit of 'basking' on the surface, is the second largest fish in the world. The species is particularly sensitive to exploitation because of its low birth rate, slow growth and maturity, and low abundance. The species' population has been declining in areas where it has been exploited for many decades. Most recorded fisheries for the species have collapsed during the past 40 years, but the extremely high value of their fins provide strong incentives to keep coming back. The species is only protected over a limited part of its range and no fisheries are properly managed. It seems likely that an overall worldwide population reduction of at least 20% will occur within the next 50 - 60 years. The basking shark is assessed as Vulnerable globally, with some local or regional populations in the Northeast Atlantic and North Pacific considered to be Endangered.

Sawfishes
Sawfishes, Pristis species, are among the most threatened elasmobranchs worldwide. All seven species are suffering declines, and are listed on the 2000 Red List as either Endangered or Critically Endangered. Because of their large toothed rostrum (saw), sawfish are extremely vulnerable to entanglement in nets, and it is almost impossible to remove them without killing them. Their high-value fins and saws are traded internationally. It is a fair assumption that extensive gillnetting and trawling in coastal, estuarine and freshwater areas throughout their range are responsible for decimating sawfish populations, while freshwater and estuarine habitat loss and damage has probably also had an effect. Early accounts of the elasmobranch fauna of the Gulf of Mexico reported that sawfish were once abundant in areas where today they are rarely or never reported. Similarly, sawfishes were reportedly common until the 1950s or 1960s in most other inshore and estuarine areas of the tropics from which they have now virtually vanished. Given the lack of direct documentation of their decline, perhaps the best indirect evidence comes from Lake Nicaragua, where in the 1970s an increase in commercial fishing corresponded with a drastic population decline. Elsewhere there were relatively large catches of sawfish prior to the 1960s, followed by a period during the 1960s and 1970s when a steep decline in catches was reported. This coincided with a huge increase in gillnet fishing worldwide that began in the 1960s. Two species are listed as Critically Endangered: the largetooth sawfish (Pristis perotteti) is extremely vulnerable to bycatch in virtually all fisheries throughout its Atlantic and Eastern Pacific range, while the common sawfish (Pristis pristis), has vanished from the Mediterranean and is likely to become extinct without urgent intervention.

List of Specialist Group Profiles