The southern tip of Cat Island, Bahamas, has been found to be an important aggregation and foraging area for oceanic whitetip sharks and may provide clues to where these populations of the endangered shark go to give birth.
Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay campus recently hosted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s two-day recovery planning workshop for the highly migratory sharks species, which were recently classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
FIU shark scientists Demian Chapman, Yannis Papastamatiou and Mark Bond were among those who were tasked with developing recovery criteria for oceanic whitetips. Once considered one of the most abundant shark species in the world, commercial fishing and the shark fin trade have decimated their numbers.
The researchers have tagged more than 100 sharks off Cat Island, many of which were pregnant females, during the course of their research. Using tracking data, they found that many of the pregnant females left the protected sanctuary and headed toward the islands of Cuba and Haiti, where there are no protections from commercial fishing.
To help protect the potential pupping grounds, Bond and his associates teamed up with the Haiti Ocean Project, a nonprofit focused on marine conservation, education, research and ecotourism, to inform the local commercial fishing industry about the importance of the area to the survival of the species.
“These fishermen don’t know where their next meal is coming from, but they really want to help these sharks,” said Jamie Aquino, president and founder of the Haiti Ocean Project.
To determine the importance of the area for the life cycle of whitetips, Bond went on a mission trip aboard OceanX’s research vessel Alucia to track down young whitetips in the Windward Passage. They were able to tag the first-ever juvenile shark off the coast of Haiti which revealed that the juvenile did not venture far from where it was originally tagged. Researchers are hoping to return to the region and use new technology to locate more juveniles.
With continued research and cooperation with local groups and fishermen in Haiti they believe that they will continue to help reduce the number of young oceanic whitetips that are being killed in the area.
“This is one of the only ways to implement lasting change in marine conservation, because we do need to consider the livelihood of the people that it would directly impact,” Bond said.