A Texas A&M-Galveston professor contributed to a report that shows shark populations have continued to shrink in the last 70 years.
Over the last 70 years, sharks have experienced considerable declines, with many species becoming threatened and endangered. Despite conservation efforts, many populations are still at risk because of overfishing and habitat loss.
Continued improvements are needed in many parts of the world to slow and reverse declines, including sharks that use coral reefs, according to a study by an international team of researchers that includes a Texas A&M University at Galveston professor.
Philip Matich, a marine biologist at Texas A&M-Galveston, and colleagues have had their work published in the current issue of Nature.
In a comprehensive study, the team deployed more than 15,000 baited remote underwater video stations on 371 coral reefs in 58 countries . Surprisingly, results showed that no sharks were detected in almost 20 percent of locations surveyed, and were almost completely absent from coral reefs in several nations.
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