Working with a British Council grant, Mauvis went out as part of the Heriot-Watt University team with James Thorburn and Amie Williams, to work with colleagues from Planeta Oceanó and the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM) to assess the level of artisanal fisheries for shark and rays in northern Peru. The teams met up in Lima and gave talks at a workshop run by Kerstin Forsberg, who heads Planeta Oceanó. We then flew over to Tumbes and then made our way to Zorritos.
We surveyed the landing site near Zorritos and saw large numbers of mobula and scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna zygnaea) were landed and sold. They appeared to be immature, which was a particular concern.
After a fair amount of organisation, we managed to go out with fishers to see what the catch included. The boat was not as planned but James, Mauvis and Maria (UNMSM student) squeezed in with two fishers and headed out. The drift net catch was overwhelmingly juvenile scalloped hammerheads and we took samples of the dead sharks.
We took two of the sharks back to share field and lab techniques we use with IMARPE, the Peruvian fisheries agency, and gave them DNA samples for their work on population genetics.
While the news of the huge numbers of elasmobranchs being caught was not good, the collaboration between our institutes and groups has been really exciting. The outlook is good as legislation (supported by work done by Planeta Oceanó) was passed during our visit to protect sharks.
We surveyed the landing site near Zorritos and saw large numbers of mobula and scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna zygnaea) were landed and sold. They appeared to be immature, which was a particular concern.
After a fair amount of organisation, we managed to go out with fishers to see what the catch included. The boat was not as planned but James, Mauvis and Maria (UNMSM student) squeezed in with two fishers and headed out. The drift net catch was overwhelmingly juvenile scalloped hammerheads and we took samples of the dead sharks.
We took two of the sharks back to share field and lab techniques we use with IMARPE, the Peruvian fisheries agency, and gave them DNA samples for their work on population genetics.
While the news of the huge numbers of elasmobranchs being caught was not good, the collaboration between our institutes and groups has been really exciting. The outlook is good as legislation (supported by work done by Planeta Oceanó) was passed during our visit to protect sharks.