Assessing the critical habitats of sharks and rays around Jaffna May, 6, 2021
Sharks and rays (elasmobranchs) are a unique group of fishes with skeletons made of cartilage. They play an important role in the marine food web, with many found in the higher trophic levels helping to maintain natural balance. Most elasmobranchs are extremely vulnerable to external pressures, such as fishing, due to their long lives, slow growth rates, late maturity, and low reproductive potential.
Unfortunately, overfishing, and other anthropogenic activities (such as destruction of their critical habitats like coral reefs and mangroves) have increased the extinction risk of most shark and ray species across their global ranges. They are captured in both target and bycatch (incidental capture) fisheries driven by growing international demand for shark and ray fins, meat, gill plates (from manta and mobula rays), liver oil, and other derivates. Many of the fisheries resulting in their overexploitation are mismanaged and unregulated. Given that living organisms are interconnected, their presence is important for ecosystem equilibrium. And the removal of even one species, and particularly keystone species like sharks, can have devastating impacts on the ecosystem and associated habitats.