Project Description:
The silky shark (Carcharhinus falciformis) is the world’s second most exploited shark species with a rapidly decreasing population trend. Multiple recent attempts at stock assessments for this species have been unsuccessful due to a lack of high-quality biological and genetic data. A major hindrance to the coordinated, multinational management that is essential for silky sharks is the unresolved spatial delimitation of stock structure within ocean basins. Accordingly, Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) are now exploring ways to augment their stock assessments of silky sharks with modern genomics data. This urgent need for genetic data offers a timely opportunity to explore synergies between traditional fisheries stock assessments and modern conservation genomics for management and conservation of the overfished and often highly migratory silky shark. The CURA Initiative is supporting Prof. Shivji to resolve these critical data gaps for silky shark populations with the aim of guiding informed management decisions in the Red Sea and Western Indian Ocean.
Objectives & Outcomes:
- Produce the first high-resolution whole genome sequence assembly of a silky shark from the Red Sea
- Determine stock structure of silky sharks across the Western Indian Ocean
- Leverage sequencing outputs to estimate regional numerical abundances and population trends of silky sharks
“A world where marine ecosystems are preserved and thrive, guided by informed research and sustainable practices.”
ABDULMALIK AL SHEIKH, Founder of Danah Marine Research
Stay informed about our research initiatives.
Sign up to our mailing list for updates about our work.