Anecdotal evidence suggests that sharks are being targeted in the United Arab Emirates artisanal fishery. However, little information is available on this fishery and baseline information is essential for understanding its impact on shark populations in the Arabian/Persian Gulf, and for managing sharks in this region. The aim of this study was to investigate the artisanal shark fishery and gain an insight into the social, motivational and economic drivers behind it. Fishery characteristics were examined and the effect of fishing on local shark stocks assessed by interviewing Emirati fishermen across the country (n = 126). Sharks were found to be increasingly targeted owing to their high value in the global fin trade industry. The majority of fishermen (80%) confirmed that changes in species composition, abundance and sizes of sharks have been continuing for more than two decades, mainly because of overfishing, raising concerns about the sustainability of this fishery. Results suggest that sharks are likely to be overexploited and that management measures will need to take into account the precautionary principle. There is an urgent need to formulate long‐term and effective conservation and management plans to prevent further declines in a number of species. Additional efforts should be directed to quantify the ecological implications of the observed changes and determine if these are aggravated by the life‐history traits of the fished species. Such implications should be considered when assessing the sustainability of local fisheries. The data gathered can now serve as a reference to managers, fisheries scientists and other stakeholders to prioritize future research as well as lay foundations for the development and implementation of national management plans for the protection and conservation of sharks. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Arabian Gulf (also known as Persian Gulf and ROPME Sea) represents an extremely important economic, political and strategic aquatic resource. Although the Gulf region is known world wide for its oil-gas deposits and production, very little is known about its ecosystem health, food web dynamics, fisheries, biodiversity and sustainability. The present study reviews and highlights the major anthropogenic stressors which threaten the marine and coastal ecosystems of the Gulf. The Arabian Gulf environment lacks the holistic, ecosystem-based research and monitoring that have been conducted in other marine ecosystems. There is a need for multi-disciplinary, multi-trophic and multi-agency international investigations including the application of emerging technology. Such an integrated strategy is urgently needed to save the rapidly changing marine ecosystems from the impact of rapid and vigorous coastal development across the entire Gulf region. The necessity of developing and implementing ecosystem health agreements between the various riparian countries is emphasized for expeditious protection, conservation and management of this precious but threatened natural heritage.
Variations in morphology, fatty acids, pigments and cyanobacterial community composition were studied in microbial mats across intertidal flats of the arid Arabian Gulf coast. These mats experience combined extreme conditions of salinity, temperature, UV radiation and desiccation depending on their tidal position. Different mat forms were observed depending on the topology of the coast and location. The mats contained 63 fatty acids in different proportions. The increased amounts of unsaturated fatty acids (12-39%) and the trans/cis ratio (0.6-1.6%) of the cyanobacterial fatty acid n-18:1omega9 in the higher tidal mats suggested an adaptation of the mat microorganisms to environmental stress. Chlorophyll a concentrations suggested lower cyanobacterial abundance in the higher than in the lower intertidal mats. Scytonemin concentrations were dependent on the increase in solar irradiation, salinity and desiccation. The mats showed richness in cyanobacterial species, with Microcoleus chthonoplastes and Lyngbya aestuarii morphotypes as the dominant cyanobacteria. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis patterns suggested shifts in the cyanobacterial community dependent on drainage efficiency and salinity from lower to higher tidal zones. We conclude that the topology of the coast and the variable extreme environmental conditions across the tidal flat determine the distribution of microbial mats as well as the presence or absence of different microorganisms.
Although fish fauna in the Arabian/Persian Gulf have been studied for decades, shark diversity has only been recently investigated in the region. Here, we present a first comprehensive account of shark diversity from the United Arab Emirates based on fishery-dependent data collected at market and landing sites over a two-year period of field sampling. Landings across the country were dominated by carcharhinids, and six species were found to be most abundant, including the spot-tail shark, Carcharhinus sorrah, and the milk shark, Rhizoprionodon acutus, contributing 31.8 % and 29.9 %, respectively, of the total number of sharks. While observed landings varied among regions and across seasons, results showed that shark landings were dominated by smallsized species, which may be a reflection of overexploitation. We are now expanding the existing checklist of shark species in the Persian Gulf from 27 to 31, having utilized both morphological identification and genetic barcoding in validating the existence of the grey bamboo shark, Chiloscyllium griseum; the tawny nurse shark, Nebrius ferrugineus; the silky shark, Carcharhinus falciformis; and the sandbar shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus, in these waters. This inventory provides an urgently needed assessment of current regional diversity patterns that can now be used as a baseline for future investigations evaluating the effect of fisheries on shark populations. Results emphasize the need for research on life history traits of the various species in order to determine their regional conservation status, but also reveal that a precautionary approach to conservation will be necessary to mitigate anthropogenic impacts.
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