Peter Kyne

Peter Kyne
Charles Darwin University | CDU · Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods

About

182
Publications
57,118
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Introduction
Peter Kyne currently works at the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University. Peter does research in Zoology, Marine Biology and Ecology.

Publications

Publications (182)
Article
Full-text available
Here, we summarise the extinction risk of the sharks and rays endemic to coastal, shelf, and slope waters of the southwest Indian Ocean and adjacent waters (SWIO+, Namibia to Kenya, including SWIO islands). This region is a hotspot of endemic and evolutionarily distinct sharks and rays. Nearly one-fifth (n = 13 of 70, 18.6%) of endemic sharks and r...
Article
Full-text available
The deep ocean is the last natural biodiversity refuge from the reach of human activities. Deepwater sharks and rays are among the most sensitive marine vertebrates to overexploitation. One-third of threatened deepwater sharks are targeted, and half the species targeted for the international liver-oil trade are threatened with extinction. Steep pop...
Article
Full-text available
Rhino rays (Order Rhinopristiformes) are one of the most threatened vertebrate groups. Despite overfishing being recognised as the greatest threat to this group, a comprehensive assessment of the fisheries and types of fishing gear that rhino rays interact with is lacking. We reviewed published and grey literature ( n = 116 references) to evaluate...
Article
Full-text available
One-third of all elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) are threatened with extinction. Euryhaline and estuarine generalist elasmobranchs are a group of 29 species that occupy non-marine environments during particular life-stages. These species are poorly known and disproportionately threatened, with 72.4% at risk of extinction or Data Deficient. A detail...
Article
Full-text available
River sharks (Glyphis spp.) and some sawfishes (Pristidae) inhabit riverine environments, although their long‐term habitat use patterns are poorly known. We investigated the diadromous movements of the northern river shark (Glyphis garricki), speartooth shark (Glyphis glyphis), narrow sawfish (Anoxypristis cuspidata), and largetooth sawfish (Pristi...
Article
Background The coastal floodplains of northern Australia are fire-prone, but the impact of fire on floodplain biota is not well understood. Aims In this study, we sought to characterise the fire history of six adjacent floodplains in coastal Northern Territory, Australia. Methods We built a fine-scale 31-year fire history (1988–2018) to compare fir...
Article
Full-text available
Abstract The Bull Shark (Carcharhinus leucas) faces varying levels of exploitation around the world due to its coastal distribution. Information regarding population connectivity is crucial to evaluate its conservation status and local fishing impacts. In this study, we sampled 922 putative Bull Sharks from 19 locations in the first global assessme...
Article
Full-text available
The viability of spatially structured populations depends on the abundance and connectivity between subpopulations of breeding adults. Yet, for many species, both are extremely difficult to assess. The speartooth shark is a critically endangered elasmobranch inhabiting tropical rivers with only three adults ever recorded in Australia. Close-kin mar...
Preprint
Full-text available
Understanding the population structure of a species is important to accurately assess its conservation status and manage the risk of local extinction. The Bull Shark ( Carcharhinus leucas ) faces varying levels of exploitation around the world due to its coastal distribution. Information regarding population connectivity is crucial to evaluate its...
Article
Full-text available
The Sharpfin Houndshark, Triakis acutipinna, was described in 1968 from a specimen captured from Isla de la Plata, Ecuador. Since then, there have been no confirmed records of the species. To investigate the contemporary occurrence of this ‘lost shark’, a multi-pronged approach was undertaken. This included a literature review, development of an ed...
Preprint
Full-text available
Understanding life history parameters is key to assessing biological productivity, extinction risk, and informing the management of exploited fish populations. Age-and-growth analyses in chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, rays, and ghost sharks) is primarily undertaken through counting band pairs laid down in vertebrae. For rare, threatened, and protec...
Article
Full-text available
Area-based conservation is essential to safeguard declining biodiversity. Several approaches have been developed for identifying networks of globally important areas based on the delineation of sites or seascapes of importance for various elements of biodiversity (e.g., birds, marine mammals). Sharks, rays, and chimaeras are facing a biodiversity c...
Article
Full-text available
The delineation of subspecies is important in the evaluation and protection of biodiversity. Subspecies delineation is hampered by inconsistently applied criteria and a lack of agreement and shifting standards on how a subspecies should be defined. The Australian endemic Yellow Chat (Epthianura crocea) is split into three subspecies (E. c. crocea,...
Article
Chondrichthyan fishes are among the most threatened vertebrates on the planet because many species have slow life histories that are outpaced by intense fishing. The Western Central Atlantic Ocean, which includes the Greater Caribbean, is a hotspot of chondrichthyan biodiversity and abundance, but has been characterized by extensive shark and ray f...
Preprint
Full-text available
The southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO) is a hotspot of endemic and evolutionarily distinct sharks and rays. We summarise the extinction risk of the sharks and rays endemic to coastal, shelf, and slope waters of the SWIO and adjacent waters (Namibia to Kenya, including SWIO islands). Thirteen of 70 species (19%) are threatened: one is Critically Endanger...
Article
Knowledge of where a threatened species occurs in a landscape is crucial for determining its habitat requirements and informing its conservation planning and management. We conducted the first broad-scale survey of the Endangered Alligator Rivers Yellow Chat Epthianura crocea tunneyi across much of its known range on drying coastal floodplains in n...
Preprint
Full-text available
Chondrichthyan fishes are among the most threatened vertebrates on the planet because many species have slow life histories that are outpaced by intense fishing. The Western Central Atlantic Ocean, which includes the greater Caribbean, is a hotspot of chondrichthyan biodiversity and abundance, but is historically characterized by extensive shark an...
Article
Full-text available
Sawfishes are among the most threatened families of marine fishes and are susceptible to incidental capture in net fisheries. Since bycatch reduction devices currently used in trawl fisheries are not effective at reducing sawfish catches, new methods to minimise sawfish bycatch are needed. Ideally, these should affect sawfish behaviour and prevent...
Preprint
Full-text available
The southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO) is a hotspot of endemic and evolutionarily distinct sharks and rays. We summarise the extinction risk of the sharks and rays endemic to coastal, shelf, and slope waters of the SWIO and adjacent waters (Namibia to Kenya, including SWIO islands). Thirteen of 70 species (19%) are threatened: one is Critically Endanger...
Article
Full-text available
The conservation of threatened elasmobranchs in tropical regions is challenging due to high local reliance on aquatic and marine resources. Due primarily to fishing pressure, river sharks (Glyphis) and sawfishes (Pristidae) have experienced large population declines in the Indo-Pacific. Papua New Guinea (PNG) may offer a refuge for these species, a...
Article
Mapping the various anthropogenic threats to species is a key tool to support and guide effective decisions for management of these threats. While there are a range of approaches to mapping threats, the extent to which these provide consistent or differing results has not been investigated. The overall aim of this study was to address this gap by e...
Article
• Sawfish (Pristidae) are considered to be among the most threatened families of elasmobranch (sharks and rays). There is a need to gather information on the status of poorly known sawfish populations to assist in global recovery initiatives. • This study used interviews with local fishers to investigate the presence of sawfish in southern Papua Ne...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Assessment of the conservation status of the Sharpfin Houndshark, Triakis acutipinna
Article
• Pressures on coastal ecosystems are increasing and aquatic species that are restricted to these habitats are facing the threat of extinction. However, the true extent of many threatened and rare aquatic species, especially elasmobranchs, remains unclear due to high levels of data deficiency and poor efficacy of traditional survey methods. Sawfish...
Article
An annotated checklist of chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, batoids, and chimaeras) occurring in South African waters is presented. The checklist is the result of decades of research and on-going systematic revisions of the regional fauna. The chondrichthyan fauna of South Africa is one of the richest in the world with 191 species, comprising 50 famil...
Article
Full-text available
Extinctions on land are often inferred from sparse sightings over time, but this technique is ill-suited for wide-ranging species. We develop a space-for-time approach to track the spatial contraction and drivers of decline of sawfishes. These iconic and endangered shark-like rays were once found in warm, coastal waters of 90 nations and are now pr...
Article
Full-text available
The largetooth sawfish Pristis pristis is a Critically Endangered, once widespread shark-like ray. The species is now extinct or severely depleted in many former parts of its range and is protected in some other range states where populations persist. The likelihood of collecting substantial new biological information is now low. Here, we review al...
Article
Full-text available
Overfishing is the primary cause of marine defaunation, yet declines in and increasing extinction risks of individual species are difficult to measure, particularly for the largest predators found in the high seas. Here we calculate two well-established indicators to track progress towards Aichi Biodiversity Targets and Sustainable Development Goal...
Chapter
Rhino rays comprise 64 species of shark-like rays from five families. Over two-thirds (69%) are threatened with extinction with 41% Critically Endangered (these face an extremely high risk of extinction). All sawfishes and giant guitarfishes, 90% of wedgefishes, 59% of guitarfishes, and 38% of banjo rays are threatened. The major driver of endanger...
Chapter
Due to the ongoing and increasing demand for their products, chondrichthyan populations are often subject to intense exploitation by many small-scale and industrial fisheries worldwide. This situation generates an urgent need for conservation and management of many chondrichthyan species. This includes the Eastern Pacific round rays of the family U...
Article
Ghost sharks (subclass Holocephali) remain a largely data-poor group of cartilaginous fishes. The general paucity of attention may partially be related to identification and unresolved taxonomic issues, occurrence in the deep oceans, and their low value and interest in fisheries (which some notable exceptions). Here, we synthesize and assess the ex...
Article
Full-text available
The shark‐like rays of the family Rhinidae (wedgefishes) are globally threatened with extinction. The poorly known clown wedgefish, Rhynchobatus cooki has historically been recorded only from fish markets in Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia. Its natural geographic range has until now gone undocumented. Social media posts revealed the first wild rec...
Article
Full-text available
• Public aquaria globally display numerous threatened fish species captured from wild populations. Potential impacts of harvests are rarely evaluated despite the need for improved management and conservation practices. • Sawfishes (Family Pristiidae) are one of the world's most at‐risk fish families. Most commonly displayed (30+ wild caught individ...
Article
With recent advances in sequencing technology, genomic data are changing how important conservation management decisions are made. Applications such as Close‐Kin Mark‐Recapture demand large amounts of data to estimate population size and structure, and their full potential can only be realised through ongoing improvements in genotyping strategies....
Technical Report
Full-text available
The Tortugas Skate (Dipturus bullisi) is a medium-sized (to 77 cm total length) demersal skate with a widespread but patchy distribution from the Gulf of Mexico to Pará, Brazil in the Western Central Atlantic. This is a poorly-known species occurring on upper continental shelves and slopes at depths of 185–550 m. No information is available on inte...
Technical Report
Full-text available
The Rough Pygmy Skate (Cruriraja rugosa) is a small (to 51 cm total length) deepwater ray occurring from Florida (USA) to Brazil, including Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in the Western Central and South Atlantic. This is a poorly-known species occurring on soft bottoms of continental and insular slopes at depths of 251–1,007 m. No information is ava...
Technical Report
Full-text available
The Striped Rabbitfish (Hydrolagus matallanasi) is a small-sized deep-water chimaera (to at least 38 cm precaudal length) endemic to southern Brazil (states of Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina) in the Southwest Atlantic. It has been recorded from the upper continental slope at depths of 416–736 m. From the late 1990s, deep-water fisheries operated...
Article
• The process of understanding the rapid global decline of sawfishes (Pristidae) has revealed great concern for their relatives, the wedgefishes (Rhinidae) and giant guitarfishes (Glaucostegidae), not least because all three families are targeted for their high‐value and internationally traded ‘white’ fins. • The objective of this study was to asse...
Article
Full-text available
Zoos and public aquaria globally display numerous wild harvested, threatened species. To validate conservation credentials, displays are often associated with research projects, educational interpretation, or conservation-related activities. However, accompanying conservation benefits are rarely assessed. In this study, an approach to evaluate cons...
Technical Report
Full-text available
The Caribbean Skate (Dipturus teevani) is a medium-sized (to 84 cm total length) deepwater ray that occurs in the Western Central and Southwest Atlantic from North Carolina, USA to Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, including the Bahamas, Gulf of Mexico, and Lesser Antilles. This is a poorly-known skate that inhabits upper continental slopes at depths of...
Technical Report
Full-text available
The San Blas Skate (Dipturus garricki) is a medium-sized (to 107 cm total length) demersal ray with a widespread but patchy distribution in the Western Central and Southwest Atlantic in the Gulf of Mexico and from Nicaragua to Piauí, Brazil, and inhabits upper continental slopes at depths of 275–475 m. No information is available on interactions wi...
Technical Report
Full-text available
The Hook Skate (Dactylobatus clarkii) is a medium-sized (to 75 cm total length) demersal skate with a widespread but patchy distribution from South Carolina (USA) to Rio Grande (Brazil) including the Lesser Antilles in the Western Atlantic. This is a poorly-known species that inhabits muddy bottoms on continental and insular slopes at depths of 300...
Article
Full-text available
The International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List is the global standard for quantifying extinction risk but assessing population reduction (criterion A) of wide-ranging, long-lived marine taxa remains difficult and controversial. We show how Bayesian state-space models (BSSM), coupled with expert knowledge at IUCN Red List works...
Article
Conservation science is crucial to global conservation efforts, and often involves projects where foreign scientists visit a host country to conduct research. Science can significantly contribute to conservation efforts in host countries. However, poorly conceived and implemented projects can lead to poor conservation outcomes, cause negative impac...
Article
Full-text available
As the state of non-marine aquatic environments (freshwater and estuarine environments with salinities ≤ 30 ppt) continues to decline globally, there is increasing concern for elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) that use them at critical stages of their life history. Due to a range of impediments including unresolved taxonomy, lack of fisheries data, a...
Article
White et al. (2019) described a new species of whaler shark represented by only three specimens from South-east Asia, all collected prior to 1934. They proposed the nomen Carcharhinus obsolerus with the justification of: “The specific name is Latin for ‘extinct’ (obsolerus) in allusion to the fact that the species has not been recorded in many deca...
Article
• The national extinction risk of 103 New Zealand chondrichthyans (sharks, rays, and chimaeras), ~10% of the global chondrichthyan fauna, was evaluated for the first time using the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species Categories and Criteria. Across 32 families, 103 species were assessed. • New Zealand holds...
Preprint
Full-text available
The process of understanding the rapid global decline of sawfishes (Pristidae) has revealed great concern for their relatives, the wedgefishes (Rhinidae) and giant guitarfishes (Glaucostegidae), not least because all three families are targeted for their high-value and internationally-traded ‘white’ fins. The objective of this study was to assess t...
Research Proposal
The Alligator Rivers yellow chat is a small, bright yellow insectivorous subspecies of bird living on the floodplains of several major rivers in the ‘Top End’ of the Northern Territory including within and nearby Kakadu National Park. Despite its listing as Endangered, little research has been conducted on the bird and its habitat requirements and...
Research Proposal
The Alligator Rivers yellow chat is endangered. It lives on floodplains in and near Kakadu National Park. We don’t know much about why it is so rare or the best ways to look after it. The floodplains where the bird lives are also important to Traditional Owners. This project is about learning more about the bird and the best ways to look after it a...
Article
Full-text available
Carcharhinus obsolerus is described based on three specimens from Borneo, Thailand and Vietnam in the Western Central Pacific. It belongs to the porosus subgroup which is characterised by having the second dorsal-fin insertion opposite the anal-fin midbase. It most closely resembles C. borneensis but differs in tooth morphology and counts and a num...
Data
Vertebral and tooth count summaries for the genus Carcharhinus. Ranges for number of precaudal and total centra, and upper and lower teeth (with number of specimens included in range in parantheses) for members of the genus Carcharhinus. Species groupings follow a combination of information provided in [19] and molecular results in [30]; note these...
Data
Comparison of the tooth and jaw morphology. Key tooth and jaw characters useful for distinguishing between Carcharhinus obsolerus, Carcharhinus cerdale/porosus, Carcharhinus borneensis and Carcharhinus macloti. (DOCX)