Eric Clua

Eric Clua
École Pratique des Hautes Études | EPHE · CRIOBE - Centre de Recherche Insulaire et Observatoire de l’Environnement

DVM, PhD, HDR

About

206
Publications
140,654
Reads
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3,716
Citations
Introduction
My main focus is on sharks behavioural ecology with an emphasis on bites on humans (forensic) and shark conservation. I am trying to approach these issues through the biology and ecology of sharks (behaviour, role and resilience), through an economical approach (Total Economic Value and contribution to ecosystem services) and the eco-anthropology (shark perception in indigeneous vs modern societies). I however also work on tropical fish ecology (incl. ciguatera), marine mammals and freediving.
Additional affiliations
January 2016 - present
École Pratique des Hautes Études
Position
  • Professor
September 2014 - present
École Pratique des Hautes Études
Position
  • External lecturer
Description
  • Course on shark biology and ecology Course on Post Larval Capture and Culture Course on coral reef sustainable management
March 2001 - August 2003
The Pacific Community
Position
  • Senior researcher fellow
Description
  • In charge of assessing the coral reef fishes stocks in coastal fisheries of Tonga and Fiji and determining the main factors explaining their current status (habitat vs fishing pressure).
Education
January 2012 - June 2013
University of Perpignan
Field of study
  • Shark ecology and behaviour
March 2001 - March 2004
École Pratique des Hautes Études
Field of study
  • Tropical fish ecology
September 1998 - June 2000
École Pratique des Hautes Études
Field of study
  • Tropical fish ecology

Publications

Publications (206)
Article
Full-text available
It is widely accepted that populations of terrestrial predators sometimes contain “problem individuals” that repeatedly attackhumans, yet this phenomenon has never been demonstrated in sharks. Here, we present photographic and genetic evidence of individuals in populations of tiger Galeocerdo cuvier and oceanic whitetip Carcharhinus longimanus shar...
Article
Full-text available
The Mistaken Identity Hypothesis (MIH) interprets shark bites on surfers, swimmers and snorkel-ers as 'mistakes' stemming primarily from similarities in the visual appearance of ocean users and the sharks typical prey. MIH is now widely accepted as fact by the general public and some sections of the scientific community despite remaining unproven....
Article
Full-text available
Most shark‐induced human fatalities are followed by widespread and unselective culling campaigns that have limited effectiveness and may have high ecological costs for threatened species. The blanket culling strategy implicitly assumes that incident risk is directly correlated with shark density, an assumption that has yet to be demonstrated. We pr...
Article
Full-text available
In this review of the behavioural patterns of chondrichthyan fishes, we have strived to produce a comprehensive catalogue of events and states and develop standardized terminology. Hence, actions that are slightly different, will be pooled under inclusive titles. Those used by different investigators are included in quotations within the textual de...
Article
Selective removal of problem individuals following shark bite incidents would be consistent with current management practices for terrestrial predators, and would be more effective and more environmentally responsible than current mass-culling programs. In parallel, and in addition to traditional forensics analysis, we recommend the routine collect...
Article
Although sharks are important for marine ecosystems, they still suffer culling campaigns after human fatalities. A case study from the Caribbean shows how the rapid use of several complementary and reproducible forensic techniques not only allowed the confirmation of the species implicated in the bite but also the accurate assessment of the size of...
Article
Indo-Pacific coral reefs host diverse assemblages of elasmobranchs from small-bodied mesopredators to apex predators that may vary in the amount of time they spend on reefs. Reef sharks and rays as a group are threatened by human activities and are facing widespread population declines, primarily due to fishing. These human factors may affect not o...
Article
Shark sanctuaries can be an effective tool for maintaining relatively high abundances of reef-associated sharks. Legally protecting sharks within a sanctuary, however, may not be sufficient without adequate knowledge of regulation, compliance and/or ownership within the protected area. This may be especially true in large and remote areas. Through...
Article
Full-text available
It is widely accepted that populations of terrestrial predators sometimes contain “problem individuals” that repeatedly attack humans, yet this phenomenon has never been demonstrated in sharks. Here, we present photographic and genetic evidence of individuals in populations of tiger Galeocerdo cuvier and oceanic whitetip Carcharhinus longimanus sha...
Article
Marine wildlife tourism is known to affect target species across multiple spatial and temporal scales, from short-term behavioral responses to changes in relative abundance and habitat use patterns. However, despite a growing number of population-, community-, and group-level studies, a limited number of them have focused their research on individu...
Article
The effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on wildlife aggression toward humans have received little attention. Records from French Polynesia show that the annual average of about five shark bites on humans from 2009 to 2019 increased significantly to 15 in 2020, despite the virtual absence of humans from the marine environment during a six-week curfew i...
Article
Identifying the species of shark responsible for a bite on humans is both complex and important for understanding and managing the shark risk. Depending on the species, tiny teeth may or may not be present in the symphyseal space at the junction of the upper and lower half-jaws. In the case of bites, these tiny teeth (if present) often leave specif...
Article
There is growing evidence of the important role learning plays in shark foraging, but few studies have examined the relationship between learning and foraging behavior in free-living settings. We addressed this knowledge gap by experimentally contrasting responses of blacktip reef Carcharhinus melanopterus and sicklefin lemon Negaprion acutidens sh...
Article
Full-text available
There is growing evidence of the important role learning plays in shark foraging, but few studies have examined the relationship between learning and foraging behavior in free-living settings. We addressed this knowledge gap by experimentally contrasting responses of blacktip reef Carcharhinus melanopterus and sicklefin lemon Negaprion acutidens sh...
Article
This study aimed to determine a typical profile of elite breath-hold divers (BHDs), in relation to loss of consciousness (LOC) and episodic memory. Forty-four BHDs were evaluated during a world championship with anthropometric and physiological measurements, psychosociological factors and memory assessment. Seventy-five percent of the BHDs had at l...
Article
Populations of sharks, including those inhabiting coral reefs, have experienced dramatic global declines. Setting appropriate targets for restoring reef shark populations requires estimates of expected relative abundances in the absence of intense fishing. It is therefore important to identify factors that drive the carrying capacity of sharks in r...
Article
Full-text available
Intra‐population heterogeneity in the behavioural response of predators to changes in prey availability caused by human activities can have major evolutionary implications. Among these activities, fisheries, while extracting resources, also provide new feeding opportunities for marine top predators. However, heterogeneity in the extent to which ind...
Article
Full-text available
Many shark populations are in decline around the world, with severe ecological and economic consequences. Fisheries management and marine protected areas (MPAs) have both been heralded as solutions. However, the effectiveness of MPAs alone is questionable, particularly for globally threatened sharks and rays (‘elasmobranchs’), with little known abo...
Article
Full-text available
Marine megafauna feeding on fishery catches (depredation) or being incidentally caught on fishing gear (bycatch) have become important issues. Their socioeconomic and conservation stakes have been increasingly studied across the world fisheries. They remain understudied in the Pacific Ocean, where longline tuna fisheries reported such interactions....
Article
Full-text available
Context Strandings are an important source of information for estimating marine mammal biodiversity, particularly in data-sparse ocean basins such as Oceania. Aims Here, we report on knowledge acquired from 218 stranding events recorded in the waters of New Caledonia (1877–2022). Methods We investigated spatio-temporal distribution, stable isotop...
Article
Although many animal species demonstrate individual personalities, studying these traits in wild sharks has proven challenging. Past research focused mainly on captive or juvenile sharks. Our ethological study of 31 wild adult bull sharks ( Carcharhinus leucas ) utilized an artificial provisioning site, amassing 2813 observations over 651 dives fro...
Article
Recent studies suggest sharks cognitive abilities are comparable to other vertebrates such as mammals and birds, but we still know relatively little about the long-term memory capacity of sharks. We took advantage of the COVID-19 anthropause to determine whether bull sharks conditioned at a provisioning ecotourism site in Fiji would remember the si...
Technical Report
Full-text available
French: Ce projet se divise en deux volets (Figure A). Le premier volet, appelé étude pilote, avait pour objectif d'optimiser une méthode non invasive, reproductible et standardisée pour réaliser l'inventaire et le suivi des requins autour de La Réunion, tout en complétant cette approche par une analyse écosystémique incluant les autres élasmobran...
Article
A global survey of coral reefs reveals that overfishing is driving resident shark species toward extinction, causing diversity deficits in reef elasmobranch (shark and ray) assemblages. Our species level analysis revealed global declines of 60 to 73% for five common resident reef shark species and that individual shark species were not detected at...
Article
Full-text available
Bait-based remote underwater video (BRUV) systems are effective devices for remotely observing fish and other marine organisms in challenging environments. The development of a long duration (24 h) surface BRUV observation surveys allowed the monitoring of scarce and elusive pelagic sharks and the direct impact on non-targeted species of longline f...
Article
Full-text available
A perennial criticism of provisioning ecotourism is that it alters the natural behavior and ecology of the target species by providing an artifcial food source. Here we evaluate its impact on the long-term site fdelity patterns of tiger sharks in French Polynesia. We hypothesized that a signifcant impact of provisioning would lead to (1) increases...
Article
Full-text available
Observers of the Polynesian Shark Observatory (ORP), a citizen science network organized mainly through the Polynesian dive centers, collected an unprecedented amount of data from more than 13,916 dives spanning 43% of the islands of French Polynesia between July 8, 2011, and April 11, 2018. The objective for this type of data collection, which is...
Article
Our compilation provides a geographical, chronological, and qualitative overview of these encounters, reviews both humans' and dolphins' deleterious behaviors during interspecific interactions and summarizes the main risks to both humans and dolphins during close encounters. Based on this review, we outline and discuss how both animal welfare and h...
Article
Full-text available
We analyzed a tiger shark (estimated 2.8 m total length) bite on a snorkeler. The removal of the terminal part of the leg suggests a predatory motivation for the bite. This is the first documented bite by a tiger shark in French Polynesia waters for the past 75 years. When sharks bite humans, the removal of large pieces of flesh or bones indicates...
Article
Full-text available
Designing appropriate management plans requires knowledge of both the dispersal ability and what has shaped the current distribution of the species under consideration. Here, we investigated the evolutionary history of the endangered gray reef shark (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) across its range by sequencing thousands of RADseq loci in 173 individu...
Article
Full-text available
Background The tiger shark ( Galeocerdo cuvier ) is a large iconic marine predator inhabiting worldwide tropical and subtropical waters. So far, only mitochondrial markers and microsatellites studies have investigated its worldwide historical demography with inconclusive outcomes. Here, we assessed for the first time the genomic variability of tige...
Article
Full-text available
There is an increasing interest in touristic observations of top predators in the wild. Sharks are probably the most sought-after animal in marine ecosystems by divers. Regulations have been put in place, and even if they are more or less respected, providing food is still used in some places in order to attract wild animals. Because of the difficu...
Preprint
Designing appropriate management plans requires knowledge of both the dispersal ability and what has shaped the current distribution of the species under consideration. Here we investigated the evolutionary history of the endangered grey reef shark ( Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos ) across its range by sequencing thousands of RAD-seq loci in 173 indivi...
Article
Clipperton, an uninhabited and remote coral atoll from the Eastern Pacific, is an important steppingstone area that harbors high marine biodiversity. Despite its biogeographic importance, little information on the ecological status of its coral reefs is available from the last decade. Herein, we characterized the benthic coral community and health...
Article
Full-text available
Isolated coral reef habitats are unique systems to study the natural dynamics of coral traits and their natural acclimatization, adaptation, and recovery from global-scale stressors such as thermally induced bleaching events. This study evaluates the spatial and temporal changes in coral community attributes (diversity, live cover, and coral assemb...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background. The tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) is a large iconic marine predator inhabiting worldwide tropical and subtropical waters. So far, only mitochondrial markers and microsatellites studies have investigated its worldwide historical demography with inconclusive outcomes. Here, we assessed for the first time the genomic variability of tiger...
Article
Coastal erosion, aggravated by coral reef mortality is a major issue for Small Island Developing States. Traditionally gray infrastructure, financed by public budgets has been used to combat beach loss. We examined if three Nature-based Solutions (NbS): (i) coral restoration (green) (ii) restoration + limestone (hybrid) and (iii) restoration + 3D p...
Article
Full-text available
Coastal protection, an important coral reef ecosystem service, is threatened by increasing coral mortality, exacerbated by global climate change. Nature-based solutions in the form of coral restoration, while not perfect, can assist in rebuilding reef structure and improving the flow of the service for some sites. With a financing gap existing betw...
Preprint
Full-text available
Clipperton, an uninhabited and remote coral atoll from the Eastern Pacific, is an important steppingstone area that harbors a high marine biodiversity. Despite its biogeographic importance, little information on the ecological status of its coral reefs is available from the last decade. Herein, we characterized the benthic coral community and healt...
Article
The tourism activities linked to artificial provisioning of blacktip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) and pink whiprays (Pateobatis fai) on a specific site in French Polynesia were suddenly and completely stopped due to a COVID-19 lockdown that lasted 6 weeks from March 20 until April 30, 2020. Using both drone footage and underwater countin...
Article
Understanding why sharks bite humans is essential for developing strategies to prevent these incidents. Here, we use bite wound characteristics and eye witness descriptions of shark behavior to determine the likely motivation for several bites perpetrated by an oceanic whitetip (OWT) shark Carcharhinus longimanus on an adult female snorkeler off Mo...
Article
Identifying the species involved in shark bite incidents is an ongoing challenge but is important to mitigate risk. We developed a sampling protocol to identify shark species from DNA transferred to inanimate objects during bite incidents. To develop and refine the technique, we swabbed shark bite impressions on surfboards and wetsuit neoprene coll...
Article
Full-text available
106,107 ✉ replying to A. V. Harry & J. M. Braccini Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03463-w (2021) Our global analysis 1 estimated the overlap and fishing exposure risk (FEI) using the space use of satellite-tracked sharks and longline fishing effort monitored by the automatic identification system (AIS). In the accompanying Comment, Harry...
Article
This article is a response to Murua et al.'s Matters Arising article in Nature, "Shark mortality cannot be assessed by fishery overlap alone," which arose from arising from N. Queiroz et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1444-4 (2019).
Article
Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) is an emerging tool intended to solve a range of ecosystem management inefficiencies, by linking conservation action to payment. Such schemes have not been tested to our knowledge, for coral reef derived coastal protection, which is a key Ecosystem Service (ES) for many nations bordered by tropical coral reefs....
Preprint
Full-text available
DNA evidence is routinely used to identify individual predators responsible for attacks on people and livestock in terrestrial settings. However, the use of transfer DNA techniques in aquatic environments for similar purposes is a recent development. To date, DNA barcoding has been used successfully to identify shark species depredating fish catche...
Preprint
Full-text available
DNA evidence is routinely used to identify individual predators responsible for attacks on people and livestock in terrestrial settings. However, the use of transfer DNA techniques in aquatic environments20 for similar purposes is a recent development. To date, DNA barcoding has been used successfully to identify shark species depredating fish catc...
Preprint
Full-text available
DNA evidence is routinely used to identify individual predators responsible for attacks on people and livestock in terrestrial settings. However, the transfer of DNA techniques to aquatic environments for similar purposes is a recent development. To date, DNA barcoding has been used successfully to identify shark species depredating fish catches an...
Article
Full-text available
The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from 89 different studies. Hundr...
Article
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are promising examples of Nature-Based Solutions that can protect diversity while delivering ecosystem services. However insufficient funding for effective management and expansion of MPAs remains a challenge and one that particularly affects developing countries. During the last ten years, a community of investors see...
Article
Coral reef fisheries provide important ecosystem services to coastal communities, yet in the Pacific Islands, many of these contemporary fisheries are threatened by overexploitation. Historically, Pacific Island societies successfully utilized community-based management and spatial temporal closures to regulate the harvest of marine resources. In r...
Article
Full-text available
The bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) is a large, mobile, circumglobally distributed high trophic level predator that inhabits a variety of remote islands and continental coastal habitats, including freshwater environments. Here, we hypothesize that the barriers to dispersal created by large oceanic expanses and deep-water trenches result in a heter...
Article
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of breath-hold diving strategies regarding loss of consciousness (LOC). Three international competitions were examined through video in constant weight diving with (CWT) or without (CNF) fins. We analysed three breath-hold parameters (time, speed, and movements count) for the following phases: act...
Article
Full-text available
An Amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Article
Full-text available
Teleost fish that form predictable spawning aggregations and undertake reproductive migrations can be particularly vulnerable to overexploitation. To support community-based management of an artisanal fishery that targets bonefish (Albula glossodonta) spawning aggregations, we used a combination of acoustic telemetry, biological sampling, and remot...
Article
Full-text available
The Mediterranean Sea is one of the seas most affected by the collapse of shark populations due to overfishing. Considered ‘vulnerable’ by the IUCN on a global scale, the blue shark Prionace glau-ca is classified as ‘Critically Endangered’ in the Mediterranean Sea. A fisheries-independent study was conducted through the implementation of 14 24-hour...
Article
Full-text available
Decades of overexploitation have devastated shark populations, leaving considerable doubt as to their ecological status1,2. Yet much of what is known about sharks has been inferred from catch records in industrial fisheries, whereas far less information is available about sharks that live in coastal habitats³. Here we address this knowledge gap usi...
Article
This study focuses on the important role of sharks in the Melanesian mythology. Based on unpublished stories essentially originating from New Caledonia, we show how strong the links are between myths and the physical environment in which Kanak live. As prevalent mythical animals, sharks can indifferently play the role of avengers and righters of wr...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Synthèse des opérations technico-scientifiques menées par la mission Mexicano-française sur Clipperton en Oct. 2019
Technical Report
Full-text available
INforme tecnico de las operaciones tecnico-cientifica que se desarollaron durante la mision en Clipperton en octubre 2019
Article
Full-text available
Baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVs) are efficient devices for remotely characterising the assemblage and relative density of fishes and other marine organisms. However, technological constraints (e.g., battery life and limited storage memory) typically limit deployment times to <2 h making it very difficult to capture the presence of mar...
Preprint
Full-text available
Long-distance movements of sharks within and between islands pose substantial challenges for resource managers working with highly migratory species. When no-take zones do not cover the critical areas that sharks use as part of their lifecycle, exposure to fishing activities can be significant. Shark movements between the Marine Protected Areas (MP...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Synthèse des opérations technico-scientifiques menées par la mission Mexicano-française sur Clipperton en Oct. 2019