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Estimated declines in shark and ray populations worldwide have raised major, widespread concern about the impacts of global fisheries on elasmobranchs. The mechanisms causing elasmobranch mortality during fisheries’ capture are not fully understood, but we must gain greater clarity on this topic for fisheries managers to develop effective conservation plans to mitigate further population declines. To evaluate how two important factors, respiratory mode and fishing gear type, impact elasmobranch survival, we compiled publicly available data sources on the immediate mortality percentages of 83 species and post‐release mortality percentages of 40 species. Using Bayesian models, we found that sharks and rays captured in longlines had significantly lower immediate mortality than those caught in trawls or gillnets. Our models also predicted the mean total discard mortality (combined immediate and post‐release mortality) percentages of obligate ram‐ventilating elasmobranchs caught in longline, gillnet and trawl gear types to be 49.8, 79.0 and 84.2%, respectively. In contrast, total discard mortality percentages of stationary‐respiring species were significantly lower (longline capture mean = 7.2%, gillnet capture mean = 25.3%, trawl capture mean = 41.9%). Our global meta‐analysis provides the first quantified demonstration of how mortality is affected by these two factors across a broad range of species. Our results and approach can be applied to data‐deficient elasmobranchs and fisheries to identify species that are likely to experience high rates of mortality due to respiratory mode and/or fishing methods used, so that appropriate mitigation measures can be prioritized and investigated.

We develop a potentially widely applicable framework for analysing the vulnerability, resilience risk and exposure of chondrichthyan species to all types of anthropogenic stressors in the marine environment. The approach combines the three components of widely applied vulnerability analysis (exposure, sensitivity and adaptability) (ESA) with three components (exposure, susceptibility and productivity) (ESP) of our adaptation of productivity–susceptibility analysis (PSA). We apply our 12‐step ESA‒ESP analysis to evaluate the vulnerability (risk of a marked reduction of the population) of each of 132 chondrichthyan species in the Exclusive Economic Zone of southern Australia. The vulnerability relates to a species’ resilience to a spatial (or suitability) reduction of its habitats from exposure to up to eight climate change stressors. Vulnerability also relates to anthropogenic mortality added to natural mortality from exposure to the stressors of five types of fishing and seven other types of anthropogenic hazards. We use biological attributes as risk factors to evaluate risk related to resilience at the species or higher taxonomic level. We evaluate each species’ exposure to anthropogenic stressors by assigning it to one of six ecological groups based on its lifestyle (demersal versus pelagic) and habitat, defined by bathymetric range and substrates. We evaluate vulnerability for 11 scenarios: 2000–2006 when fishing effort peaked; 2018 following a decade of fisheries management reforms; low, medium and high standard future carbon dioxide equivalent emissions scenarios; and their six possible climate–fishing combinations. Our results demonstrate the value of refugia from fishing and how climate change exacerbates the risks from fishing.

Incidental fisheries capture has been identified as having a major effect on shark populations throughout the world. However, factors that contribute to the mortality of shark bycatch during fisheries capture are not fully understood. Here, we investigated the effects of capture duration, sea surface temperature, and shark total length (snout to the tip of the upper caudal lobe) on the physiology and condition of longline-caught bronze whalers, Carcharhinus brachyurus. Plasma lactate and potassium concentration had a positive linear relationship with capture duration, indicating that this species experiences increasing physiological challenges while on fishing gear. Additionally, we used stereotype logistic regression models to determine variables that could predict the capture condition of sharks (categorized as "healthy," "sluggish," or "moribund or dead"). In these models, elevated plasma lactate concentration, plasma potassium concentration, and capture duration increased the likelihood of C. brachyurus being captured in a "sluggish" condition or in a "moribund or dead" condition. After plasma lactate concentration exceeded 27.4 mmol/L, plasma potassium concentration exceeded 8.3 mmol/L, or capture durations exceeded 293 min, the majority of captured sharks (>50%) were predicted to be "moribund or dead." We recommend that a reduction in the amount of time longlines are left fishing (soak time) will reduce immediate and post-release mortality in C. brachyurus bycatch and that our methods could be applied to identify causes of fisheries-induced mortality in future studies. The identification of operational, environmental, and biological variables contributing to poor condition will be necessary to implement conservation strategies that reduce mortality during capture.

Recovering small, endangered populations is challenging, especially if the drivers of declines are not well understood. While infrequent births and deaths may be important to the outlook of endangered populations, small sample sizes confound studies seeking the mechanisms underlying demographic fluctuations. Individual metrics of health, such as nutritive condition, can provide a rich data source on population status and may translate into population trends. We examined interannual changes in body condition metrics of endangered Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW) collected using helicopters and remotely operated drones. We imaged and measured the condition of the majority of all three social pods (J, K, and L) in each of seven years between 2008 and 2019. We used Bayesian multi‐state transition models to identify relationships between body condition changes and both tributary‐specific and area‐based indices of Chinook salmon abundance, and K‐fold cross‐validation to compare the predictive power of candidate salmon covariates. We found that Fraser River (tributary‐specific) and Salish Sea (area‐based) Chinook salmon abundances had the greatest predictive power for J Pod body condition changes, as well as the strongest relationships between any salmon covariates and SRKW condition across pods. Puget Sound (tributary‐specific) Chinook salmon abundance had the greatest predictive power for L Pod body condition changes, but a weaker relationship than Fraser River or Salish Sea abundance had with J Pod body condition. The best‐fit model for K Pod included no Chinook covariates. In addition, we found elevated mortality probabilities in SRKW exhibiting poor body condition (reflecting depleted fat reserves), 2–3 times higher than whales in more robust condition. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that (1) fluctuations in SRKW body condition can in some cases be linked to Chinook salmon abundance; (2) the three SRKW pods appear to have distinct patterns of body condition fluctuations, suggesting different foraging patterns; and (3) aerial photogrammetry is a useful early‐warning system that can identify SRKW at higher risk of mortality in the near future.

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To investigate factors contributing to immediate mortality in gill-net-caught elasmobranchs, we caught and blood sampled a total of 64 sharks and rays. Blacktip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) were the most commonly caught species and had significantly elevated plasma lactate (mean 23.3 mM) and potassium (mean 6.2 mM) concentrations following capture, suggesting physiological disturbance. The overall immediate mortality rate of C. melanopterus was 38% and mortality was significantly influenced by body size, but not location of entanglement or sex. Of the other species caught, nervous sharks (Carcharhinus cautus) were of particular concern, because this species is often caught as bycatch by gill-net fisheries throughout its range and experienced high immediate mortality rates when captured (66%; n = 12) in the present study. The results suggest that juvenile C. melanopterus are particularly susceptible to gill-net-related mortality and that fisheries management strategies for C. melanopterus bycatch should focus on reducing the likelihood of juvenile sharks encountering this gear. Given that this species is not currently considered to be threatened with extinction, population monitoring should be performed such that the suggested regulations can be implemented if populations decline to levels threatening the conservation status of the species.

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