Moving beyond lethal programs for shark hazard mitigation

Meeuwig, Jessica J.; Ferreira, Luis D.

doi:10.1111/acv.12154

Cited by 37 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…d Carson (); United Nations (n.d.); World Commission on Environment and Development (). e Gibbs and Warren (, ); McPhee (); Meeuwig and Ferreira (); Pepin‐Neff and Wynter (); Simpfendorfer et al (). f Department of Primary Industries (n.d.‐b); Hazin and Afonso (); Huveneers et al (); McPhee and Blount (); O'Connell, Stroud, et al ()).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Critiques of negative effects, effectiveness and appropriateness of lethal strategies are becoming more widespread (e.g. Gibbs & Warren, , ; McPhee, ; Meeuwig & Ferreira, ; Pepin‐Neff & Wynter, ; Simpfendorfer, Heupel, White, & Dulvy, ). Concurrently, related concerns are driving innovation and investment in non‐lethal techniques, including personal electrical and visual deterrents, underwater barriers and deterrents using light, sound, air and magnet technologies, and underwater and aerial surveillance (Department of Primary Industries n.d.‐b; Hazin & Afonso, ; Huveneers et al, ; McPhee & Blount, ; O'Connell, Stroud, & He, ; see Figure ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects and effectiveness of lethal shark hazard management: The Shark Meshing (Bather Protection) Program, NSW, Australia

et al. 2019

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‘Shark attack’ presents a considerable social‐environmental challenge. Each year a small number of people are injured or killed by shark bite. Concurrently, sharks and other marine life are subject to unprecedented anthropogenic pressures. Shark hazard management varies globally, but lethal strategies are common, with negative consequences for species and environments. Of particular concern are the effects for threatened species. Lethal strategies have recently come under criticism, based on the negative effects for marine life, effectiveness for human safety and inconsistency with contemporary values. Moves to improve both safety and conservation can be hindered by polarized debate. We present a case study of the world's longest‐running lethal shark hazard management program, the Shark Meshing (Bather Protection) Program, New South Wales, Australia. We take an interdisciplinary approach to bring into conversation factors that contribute to safety and conservation outcomes. To date, most research focuses on one or other of these areas. We seek to synthesize the factors that are not previously considered in relation to each other. Our aims were to: (a) identify and critique the diverse factors that determine the outcomes of the program; (b) assess the negative effects of the program for sharks and other marine life; and (c) assess the effectiveness of the program for reducing threat of shark interactions. We find that: (a) multiple social and environmental factors contribute to program outcomes; (b) total shark numbers and populations of key target species – white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) and bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) – have declined over the program's 80 years, as have a number of non‐target species; (c) incidence of shark bite has declined since the program's introduction, but two external points warrant attention. First, key factors influencing the shark bite incidence are frequently overlooked, namely changing cultures of beach‐ and ocean‐use, advances in beach patrol, and emergency and medical response. Second, the proportion of bites leading to fatality has decreased significantly in recent decades. Beach patrol and emergency response contribute to human safety and well‐being without the negative consequences of lethal strategies. As such, they offer a focus for future shark hazard management and research. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects and effectiveness of lethal shark hazard management: The Shark Meshing (Bather Protection) Program, NSW, Australia

et al. 2019

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“…Although the global number of white shark bites remains low, localized increases in such incidents as well as interactions have led to growing pressure from the general public for governments to initiate policies that can negatively affect white shark populations (Burgess and Callahan, 1996;Curtis et al, 2012;Kock et al, 2012;Meeuwig and Ferreira, 2014). For example, culling or targeted killing of large sharks considered to be an imminent threat have been used as a response to shark bites (e.g., in Egypt, La Reunion Island, Australia), but has not been demonstrated to significantly reduce risk of shark bites (e.g., Wetherbee et al, 1994;Holland et al, 1999).…”

Section: Can We Reliably Assess and Significantly Reduce Human-shark mentioning

confidence: 99%

Future Research Directions on the “Elusive” White Shark

et al. 2018

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“…However, little is known about the varying importance of each individual within social groups and its significance in terms of vulnerability of shark networks to anthropogenic impacts. Sharks are increasingly targeted by fisheries [10] and are subject to culling policies in response to shark-human interactions [11]. Integrating individual characteristics and variable contribution into a social network may also contribute to improving conservation biology strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning and robustness to catch-and-release fishing in a shark social network

2017

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Individuals can play different roles in maintaining connectivity and social cohesion in animal populations and thereby influence population robustness to perturbations. We performed a social network analysis in a reef shark population to assess the vulnerability of the global network to node removal under different scenarios. We found that the network was generally robust to the removal of nodes with high centrality. The network appeared also highly robust to experimental fishing. Individual shark catchability decreased as a function of experience, as revealed by comparing capture frequency and site presence. Altogether, these features suggest that individuals learnt to avoid capture, which ultimately increased network robustness to experimental catch-and-release. Our results also suggest that some caution must be taken when using capture-recapture models often used to assess population size as assumptions (such as equal probabilities of capture and recapture) may be violated by individual learning to escape recapture.

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Moving beyond lethal programs for shark hazard mitigation

Abstract: Read the Feature Paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acv.12096 Other Commentaries on this paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acv.12155 Response from the authors: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acv.12160

Cited by 37 publications

References 11 publications

Effects and effectiveness of lethal shark hazard management: The Shark Meshing (Bather Protection) Program, NSW, Australia

Effects and effectiveness of lethal shark hazard management: The Shark Meshing (Bather Protection) Program, NSW, Australia

Future Research Directions on the “Elusive” White Shark

Learning and robustness to catch-and-release fishing in a shark social network

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