Hollie Booth

University of Oxford | OX · Department of Zoology

One-third of all elasmobranch species are classified as globally threatened (i.e., vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered) according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, The Sphyrnidae family, once among the most abundant shark species complexes, now faces one of highest extinction risks by the IUCN in 2019. This study aimed to ana...

The use of Life cycle assessment (LCA) methods is rapidly expanding as a means of estimating the biodiversity impacts of organisations across complex value chains. However, these methods have limitations and substantial uncertainties, which are rarely communicated in the results of LCAs. Drawing upon the ecological and LCA literature on uncertainty...

Sharks, rays and their cartilaginous relatives (Class Chondrichthyes, herein ‘sharks’) are among the world's most threatened species groups, primarily due to overfishing, which in turn is driven by complex market forces including demand for fins. Understanding the high‐value shark fin market is a global priority for conserving shark and rays, yet t...

Hiu martil (Sphyrna spp.) memiliki peluang tertangkap dan tingkat eksploitasi yang tinggi karena bentuk kepala yang unik dan perilaku agregasi remaja di perairan pesisir dangkal. Hiu yang didaratkan di PPI Rigaih umumnya merupakan bycatch, berukuran kecil dan belum dewasa/anakan.. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis karakteristik nelayan di...

Context Giant guitarfish (Family: Glaucostegidae) and wedgefish (Family: Rhinidae) (Critically Endangered, IUCN Red List and CITES Appendix II) are highly exploited throughout their distribution because of their highly valued fins in the international market. Both are commonly caught as bycatch or secondary valuable catch in the Java Sea, including...

The 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls upon the private sector to take substantial action to mitigate its negative impacts on biodiversity and contribute towards nature recovery. The term ‘Nature Positive’ has gained traction in biodiversity conservation discourse to describe both a societal goal and the ambitions of individu...

White Spotted Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus australiae) is one of the member Elasmobranch family which is categorized as an endangered species. The R. australiae is the main target by fishers in Tanjung Luar and Maringkik Island. This study was aimed to analyze ecobiological aspect and to estimate economical incentive value of R. australiae fisheries in...

Sharks, rays and their cartilaginous relatives (Class Chondricthyes, herein ‘sharks’) are amongst the world’s most threatened species groups, primarily due to overfishing, which in turn is driven by complex market forces including demand for fins. Understanding the high-value shark fin market is a global priority for conserving shark and rays, yet...

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) sets a specific target for reducing the private sector’s negative impacts on biodiversity and increasing positive impacts, as part of overall efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss within the coming decade. In parallel, ‘nature positive’ is emerging as an inclusive and ambitious rallyi...

Biodiversity conservation supporting a global sustainability transformation must be inclusive, equitable, just and embrace plural values. The conservation basic income (CBI), a proposed unconditional cash transfer to individuals residing in important conservation areas, is a potentially powerful mechanism for facilitating this radical shift in cons...

Fisheries bycatch is the greatest threat to migratory, long‐lived marine animals. Addressing bycatch ultimately requires changing fisher behaviour, yet social and behavioural sciences are rarely applied to bycatch mitigation, with an absence of theory‐informed behaviour change interventions. Moreover, mitigating bycatch is particularly challenging...

Fisheries bycatch is the foremost threat to the conservation of many marine species. Evaluation of alternative bycatch management strategies can account for the relative strength of evidence, contribution to achieving objectives, costs to commercial viability, likelihood of compliance and tradeoffs from multispecies conflicts. This study describes...

Sharks belong to an ancient and diverse group of cartilaginous fish called the ‘chondrichthyans’, which play important roles in maintaining healthy oceans. Unfortunately these fish are amongst the world’s most threatened species, primarily due to overfishing. Saving sharks requires that the entire seafood industry is managed for sustainability, so...

Large, long-lived marine animals (‘marine megafauna’) are amongst the world's most threatened taxa, primarily due to overfishing. Reducing fisheries' impacts on marine megafauna is particularly challenging in small-scale fisheries (SSFs), where endangered species can have important consumptive use values. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) have...

Many shark species (Class Chondrichthyes) are threatened with extinction due to overfishing. Of the >1,000 described Chondrichthyan species, the pelagic thresher sharks (Alopias pelagicus) are of particular conservation priority since they are evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered. As the world’s largest shark fishing nation, with particu...

Marine tourism is promoted as a substitute economic activity to unsustainable fishing, which is compatible with conservation. However, benefits of marine tourism do not typically accrue in small-scale fisheries (SSFs), which often bear the costs of conservation; they accrue to tourists and tourist-focussed businesses. We explored how marine tourism...

The need for conservation action to be cost‐effective is widely accepted, resulting in increased interest and effort to assess effectiveness. Assessing the financial and economic costs of conservation is equally important for assessing cost‐effectiveness, yet their measurement and assessment are repeatedly identified as lacking. The healthcare sect...

The hammerhead shark has high economic value, but its population is highly threatened due to its high exploitation. This study aims to calculate the level of preference of shark fishermen on the value of willingness to pay for the conservation of hammerhead shark resources. This research was conducted from November to December 2020 in Tanjung Luar...

Many shark and ray species (Class Chondrichthyes, herein ‘sharks’) are threatened by overfishing. Tackling this requires implementation of context-specific fisheries management measures, which are both technically effective and socio-economically feasible. Here we explore the cost-effectiveness of various input-oriented management measures for miti...

Biodiversity conservation supporting a global sustainability transformation must be inclusive, equitable, just, and embrace plural values. The conservation basic income (CBI), an unconditional cash transfer to individuals in important conservation areas, is a potentially powerful mechanism for facilitating this radical shift in conservation. Here,...

Marine tourism is promoted as a substitute economic activity to unsustainable fishing, which is compatible with conservation. However, benefits of marine tourism do not typically accrue in small-scale fisheries (SSFs), which often bear the costs of conservation; they accrue to tourists and to tourist-focussed businesses. We explored how marine tour...

Participatory decision tools enable stakeholders to reconcile conflicting natural resources management objectives. Fisheries targeting highly productive species can have profound impacts on co-occurring bycatch species with low fecundity and other life history traits that make them vulnerable to anthropogenic sources of mortality. This study develo...

The crisis generated by the emergence and pandemic spread of COVID-19 has thrown into the global spotlight the dangers associated with novel diseases, as well as the key role of animals, especially wild animals, as potential sources of pathogens to humans. There is a widespread demand for a new relationship with wild and domestic animals, including...

Fisheries bycatch is the greatest threat to migratory, long-lived marine animals. Managing bycatch can be particularly problematic in small-scale mixed-species fisheries, where perceptions of target and non-target vary widely, and all catches have economic or subsistence value. Such fisheries are ubiquitous throughout the world’s oceans, and repres...

Large, long-lived marine animals (‘marine megafauna’) play critical roles in ocean ecosystems, however, they are threatened by overfishing. Technologies and practices that reduce fisheries’ impacts on marine megafauna are well documented, yet less is known about how to encourage their adoption. This is particularly challenging in small-scale fisher...

The need for conservation action to be cost-effective is widely accepted and this has prompted an increased interest and effort to assess effectiveness. Assessing financial costs of conservation is equally important, yet its measurement and assessment are repeatedly identified as lacking. The healthcare sector however, has made substantial progress...

At least one third of sharks and their cartilaginous relatives (Class Chondrichthyes) meet the IUCN Red List Criteria for being threatened with extinction. Overfishing is the primary threat, with less than 4% of the world's shark catches managed for sustainability. The high‐value shark‐fin trade has gained the greatest attention as a conservation i...

• Many shark and ray (elasmobranch) species are threatened with extinction, due to overfishing and commercial trade • Sarawak is situated in Malaysian Borneo in the Coral Triangle: a global priority region for elasmobranch conservation. Malaysia is the world’s eighth largest elasmobranch fishing nation, and Sarawak is one of Malaysia’s largest fish...

Understanding wildlife markets is central to effective conservation: it can help managers and policy‐makers to predict how interventions might influence supply and demand of wildlife products, and economic welfare of wildlife users; and thus, design interventions which have better outcomes for wildlife and people. Here we apply a revealed preferenc...

The new global biodiversity framework (GBF) being developed under the Convention on Biological Diversity must drive action to reverse the ongoing decline of the Earth's biodiversity. Explicit, measurable goals that specify the outcomes we want to achieve are needed to set the course for this action. However, the current draft goals and targets fail...

Economic activities in the ocean (that is, the ‘blue economy’) provide value to society, yet also jeopardize marine ecosystems. For example, fisheries are an essential source of income and food security for billions of people, yet bycatch poses a major threat to marine biodiversity, creating trade-offs between economic growth and biodiversity conse...

Sharks are one of the most threatened marine animals, with fishing identified as the prime human activity responsible for population declines. The tropical eastern Pacific, a biogeographic region spanning the coastal areas from Mexico to Peru including the Colombian Pacific coast and the Galapagos archipelago, forms critical habitat and migratory r...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused huge loss of life, and immense social and economic harm. Wildlife trade has become central to discourse on COVID-19, zoonotic pandemics, and related policy responses, which must focus on “saving lives, protecting livelihoods, and safeguarding nature.” Proposed policy responses have included extreme measures such as...

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought humanity’s strained relationship with nature into sharp focus, with calls for cessation of wild meat trade and consumption, to protect public health and biodiversity.¹,² However, the importance of wild meat for human nutrition, and its tele-couplings to other food production systems, mean that the complete removal...

The upcoming Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting, and adoption of the new Global Biodiversity Framework, represent an opportunity to transform humanity's relationship with nature. Restoring nature while meeting human needs requires a bold vision, including mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in society. We present a framework that...

Abstract Manta rays (Mobula birostris and M. alfredi) are threatened by overexploitation for international trade. Indonesia was home to the world's largest documented manta fishery—Lamakera, in East Nusa Tenggara. However, in 2014, the Indonesian government declared manta rays a protected species. Here we describe an integrated intervention to redu...

Manta rays (Mobula birostris and M. alfredi) are threatened by overexploitation for international trade. Indonesia was home to the world's largest documented manta fishery-Lamakera, in East Nusa Tenggara. However, in 2014, the Indonesian government declared manta rays a protected species. Here we describe an integrated intervention to reduce manta...

Bycatch poses a significant threat to marine megafauna, such as elasmobranchs. India has one of the highest elasmobranch landings globally, through both targeted catch and bycatch. As elasmobranchs contribute to food and livelihood security, there is a need for holistic approaches to bycatch mitigation. We adopt an interdisciplinary approach to cri...

The crisis generated by the emergence and pandemic spread of COVID-19 has thrown into the global spotlight the dangers associated with novel diseases, as well as the key role of animals, especially wild animals, as potential sources of pathogens to humans. There is a widespread demand for a new relationship with wild and domestic animals, including...

The COVID‐19 pandemic has caused huge loss of life, and immense social and economic costs throughout the world. Policy responses must minimise the risk of future zoonotic pandemics while simultaneously securing livelihoods and protecting nature, all of which are fundamental to delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Wildlife trade h...

The upcoming meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity aims to agree a Global Biodiversity Framework, representing an opportunity to transform humanity's relationship with nature. Restoring nature while meeting human needs requires a bold vision, but this will only succeed if biodiversity conservation can be mainstreamed throughout society....

As a hotspot of species diversity and fishing pressure, Indonesia is a global priority for the conservation of sharks, rays and their cartilaginous relatives (herein "sharks"). The high value marine tourism industry in Indonesia can create economic incentives for protecting and sustainably managing marine ecosystems and species, including sharks. T...

Thresher sharks (family Alopiidae) are an evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered species group. Indonesia is the world's largest shark fishing nation, and a global priority for reducing the capture of threatened shark species. Kutaradja port is one of Indonesia's largest fishing ports, located in the capital of Aceh Province, Banda Aceh, W...

The mitigation hierarchy has been proposed as an overarching framework for managing fisheries and reducing marine megafauna bycatch, but requires empirical application to show its practical utility. Focusing on a small-scale fishing community in Peru as a case study system, we test how the mitigation hierarchy can support efforts to reduce captures...

Overexploitation represents a significant threat to wildlife, with the severest impacts felt by slow growing, economically valuable species. Governments often seek to address this through regulating utilisation and trade of species, which is commonly catalysed by multi-lateral environmental agreements (MEAs) such as the Convention on the Internatio...

Sharks and their cartilaginous relatives are one of the world's most threatened species groups. The primary cause is overfishing in targeted and bycatch fisheries. Reductions in fishing mortality are needed to halt shark population declines. However, this requires complex fisheries management decisions, which often entail trade‐offs between conserv...

The waters of North Maluku Province are known as a hotspot for sharks in Indonesia. However, despite the richness and importance of shark population in this area, information about shark fisheries and trade remains limited. The aim of this research was to fill this knowledge gap by identifying the characteristics of shark fisheries and trade in thi...

Indonesia is the heart of the Coral Triangle–the global epicenter for marine biodiversity, and home to many endemic, threatened and protected species. There is a need for rapid, low-cost methods to better identify and tackle seafood fraud in Indonesia because Indonesia is also the world's largest shark fishing nation. Levels of domestic consumption...

Sharks and rays are vulnerable species, which are highly exploited in Indonesian waters but lacked of detailed information on their ecology and fisheries status. This research aims to assess the level of vulnerability of sharks and rays to overfishing using the maximum intrinsic rate of population increase (rmax), derived from the Euler-Lotka equat...

Overfishing is a major threat to the survival of shark species, primarily driven by international trade in high-value fins, as well as meat, liver oil, skin and cartilage. The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) aims to ensure that commercial trade does not threaten wild species, and several s...

Data of landed sharks at Tanjung Luar auction that had been used for this study. (XLSX)

Questionnaires have been used to interview shark fishers, collector, traders, and processors. (DOCX)

As a CITES implementation for sharks and rays, Indonesia have taken an action to fully protect Sawfish, Whale shark, and Manta Rays and enforce a ban export for hammerhead, oceanic whitetip and silky sharks. Indonesia also implementing their law enforcement on illegal shark and ray trade via investigation and prosecution. However, there is still ch...

Lying at the heart of the Coral Triangle, and spanning more than 6 million km2 of ocean and 17,000 islands, Indonesia is a global hotspot for marine biodiversity with high levels of shark richness and endemism. It is also the world’s largest shark fishing nation, with average annual catch exceeding 100,000 tonnes per year. Shark fisheries have exis...

Sharks and rays are increasingly recognized as a priority species group for conservation action. They play critical roles in maintaining functional and productive ecosystems, and contribute directly to human well- being through the fishing industry, tourism industry and role in coastal livelihoods and food security. Sharks are also one of the most...

Commissioned by IFAD and the United Nations Environment Programme, this report aims to improve understanding among policymakers and practitioners – together with those influencing and making decisions in relevant business sectors – of the relationships between smallholders, food security and the environment. It leads to the conclusion that, with ta...