New York: Fishing activities are putting ecologically important shark hotspots worldwide in danger, researchers have warned. “Currently, little to no protection exists for sharks in the high seas. It’s clear from our study that immediate conservation action is needed to prevent further declines of open-ocean sharks,” said study co-author Neil Hammerschlag from the University of Miami in the US.
“These findings are concerning because as top predators, sharks help maintain healthy ocean ecosystems,” said Hammerschlag. For the study published in the journal Nature, the international team of over 150 scientists from 26 countries combined movement data from nearly 2,000 sharks tracked with satellite tags. Using this tracking information, researchers identified areas of the ocean that were important for multiple species, shark “hot spots”.
