Sharks and rays are vital to marine ecosystems, playing a key role in maintaining balance and creating harmony. As apex predators, sharks regulate the populations of species below them in the food chain, acting as indicators of ocean health.
However, there is growing global concern about the increasing catches of sharks and rays, which threaten the populations of many species across the world's oceans. Effective conservation and management efforts depend on a thorough understanding of these species.
In Mozambique, 146 species of chondrichthyans (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) have been documented. Southern Mozambique is recognized as a global hotspot for shark and ray biodiversity, endemism, and evolutionary uniqueness.
Conservation Challenges
In Mozambique, heavy fishing pressure has resulted in sharks and rays being heavily overfished, either as targeted species or bycatch. This overexploitation is reflected in the high proportion of juveniles caught and the alarming conservation status of many species. Currently, 69 species (47%) are classified as threatened with extinction (Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered), with an additional 18 species (12%) listed as Data Deficient, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
Conservation Approach
Our approach focuses on generating and utilizing high-quality scientific data to address gaps in the management and protection of sharks and rays. By supporting policy and legislative reforms, and ensuring their implementation through robust research, innovative tools, guidelines and capacity building efforts, we aim to reduce overexploitation, promote species recovery, and restore critical habitats.
To achieve these goals, we adopt an integrated, holistic program focused on three priority areas:
- Protecting species
- Managing fisheries
- Controlling trade
Goals
- Prevent illegal catches and wildlife trade while promoting sustainable fishing practices and protecting critical habitats for coastal and marine species like sharks and rays.
- Improve fisheries and market management to reduce impacts on sharks and rays.
- Enhance understanding of the distribution and management needs of sharks and rays to inform better policy decisions.
Activities
- Support Policy Development: Assist the government in closing policy gaps and developing national strategies, such as Mozambique's National Plan of Action (NPOA) for Sharks and Rays, to integrate biodiversity into spatial planning and mitigate impacts on marine ecosystems.
- Promote Sustainable Fishing Practices: Work with local coastal communities to establish sustainable small-scale fishing practices, including no-take zones for shark and ray protection, while promoting environmentally friendly alternatives for subsistence.
- Capacity Building and Awareness: Conduct training sessions on shark and ray species identification for government staff, local communities, and other stakeholders, ensuring effective enforcement of regulations and compliance with conservation measures. - Enhance Communication Efforts: Strengthen communication about shark and ray conservation to raise awareness and highlight the achievements of the Mozambican program
Threats
Globally, increasing catches of sharks and rays are raising concerns about the severe impacts on their populations. With slow growth rates, late maturity, and low reproductive potential, sharks and rays are especially vulnerable to overfishing, leading to significant declines in many areas of the world's oceans.
Accomplishments
- Since 2018, WCS, in partnership with InOM, has conducted shark and ray surveys using Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) surveys, an innovative methodology widely used worldwide to assess coastal shark and ray populations. To date, over 1,300 km of the Mozambican coastline has been surveyed using 2060 hours of BRUV footage across the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Inhambane, Gaza, and Maputo
- The data collected by WCS and InOM since 2018 through landing site surveys and BRUVs has supported the Government of Mozambique in revising the Regulation for Maritime Fisheries (REPMAR), approved in 2020, which now protects 14 species of sharks and rays.
- WCS has helped improve Mozambique's capacity to identify shark and ray species by providing translated identification guides in Portuguese, 3D replication fins to serve as real-scale models, genetic barcoding training, and a rapid genetic sequencer known as the Magnetic Induction Cycler (MIC). Additionally, PCR tests have been developed specifically for identifying shark and ray species. To date, at least 79 individuals, including 44 males and 35 females, have been trained in these areas.