South African Elasmobranch Monitoring

Our last blog post was dedicated to the most charismatic sharks one can find along the South African coastline, so this time we thought we’d share the love with some of the lesser known species. While the majority of South African chondrichthyan species are indeed sharks (our coastline is home to 117 shark species that we know of at present), our waters also play host to 79 batoid species (i.e. rays and skates) as well as 8 chimaera species (although there are probably more s

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are an important spatial planning tool and we are expecting a few changes in our existing MPA network in South Africa. By now most of us have heard of the South African government’s efforts to establish a network of 22 new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and thereby increasing the coverage from presently 0.5% to 5%. This endeavour is part of the government initiative “Operation Phakisa”, which aims to rapidly unlock the economic potential of South

Sharks and rays commonly wash out on our beaches. There are a number of potential reasons for such strandings, but in most cases it is difficult to pinpoint the cause. The most common stranding factors are: UPWELLING EVENTS (common along the entire South African coastline) The sudden decrease of water temperature during upwelling events can impact the ability to maintain an elevated body core temperature and heart rate. Particularly young and small sharks with a high surface

In some regions they are referred to as sandsharks and at first sight they look very similar to shark, but in fact Guitarfishes and their relatives (Rhinobatiformes) are Rays. They are divided into three separate families: Guitarfishes (Rhinobatidae), Wedgefishes (Rhynchobatidae) and Sharkrays (Rhinidae). For the untrained eye it is not always easy to tell them apart. Wedgefishes and Sharkrays prefer tropical waters and their South African distribution is limited to KwaZulu N