Working for the understanding, sustainable use, and conservation of Sharks and their relatives in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean
Keynote Speakers
Keynote speakers
OCS Conference 2018
21 - 23 February
Know-how adopted from human, plant and animal genomics combined with the larger and older body of empirical and theoretical population genetics is closing knowledge gaps in the population biology of sharks and rays. This has the potential to significantly improve conservation practices for threatened, exploited and protected elasmobranch species, and the sustainable management of elasmobranch species that are outside this category. New information from genetics and genomics is addressing practical demographic issues such as the extent and drivers of connectivity between populations, numbers of individuals making up those populations and aspects of reproductive biology and behaviour that can rarely be observed in the wild or captive elasmobranch populations. My talk will present some important aspects of this flood of new information from a field that is regarded sometimes regarded as dense and incomprehensible.
Philopatry: phact or phiction?
And other insights into elasmobranch biology using genetics and genomics
Jennifer Ovenden
Molecular Fisheries Laboratory
School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland
A brief description of chondrichthyan diversity in New Zealand waters is followed by an overview of shark research and management in New Zealand. At the time of European colonisation coastal sharks and rays were an important food resource for the Maori people and were the subject of large, strictly regulated fisheries. Following colonisation customary regulation of fishing was rapidly broken down and public interest in and knowledge of sharks waned, as did oversight of shark fisheries. During the 1970s growing concern that fishing was becoming, or had in some cases reached unsustainable levels prompted introduction of the Quota Management System (QMS) and individual transferable quotas for commercial fishers. The consequences of this and the effect of subsequent international agreements on shark conservation are examined.
Shark research and management in New Zealand: a potted history and current state of play
Clinton Duffy, Marine Ecosystems Team, New Zealand Department of Conservation
Oceania Chondrichthyan Society
