Conference Paper

Potential threats to the resilience of valuable coral reef ecosystems of the Coral Sea (Western Pacific) linked to the collapse of coastal shark populations in remote bridging islands

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Abstract

The decline of meso- predators such as coastal sharks is a concern because such species can have important ecological roles in maintaining reef ecosystems resilience. Two field trips conducted in August 2010 and November 2011 in the Chesterfield archipelago (Coral sea) allowed us to assess the abundances and average sizes of medium-bodied Charcharinidae with a specific focus on Grey reef shark (Carcharhinus amblhyrhynchos), through fishing (46 hours of cumulated effort) and underwater visual censuses (25 hours of cumulated effort). We globally found very low abundances and low average Total Length (TL) for all species, with specifically in the case of the Grey reef shark an average abundance of 2.1 individuals/dive and the great majority of animals with TL inferior to 120 cm. We compared our findings with historical data and conluded that a general strong decline in the coastal shark populations have occurred in this area, probably due to recent overfishing. The enforcement of conservation measures is strongly recommended among these remote reefs that may act as relays for genetic connectivity between reef shark populations that contribute to the resilience of valuable assets of the Coral sea such as the GBR on the West and the New Caledonian reef lagoons on the East, both classified

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