Scientists want to perform research that helps save sharks. Lists of research priorities can help!
David conducting shark research with a lemon shark in the Everglades during his PhD.
Sharks and their relatives are some of the most threatened groups of animals in the world—a 2021 report showed that nearly 1/3 of all known species are assessed as threatened by the IUCN Red List, an international group of scientific experts. In lots of cases, we need more scientific data to understand how to most effectively conserve, manage, and protect these animals, especially for the many species which are understudied. In my past research, I surveyed scientific experts (here https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cobi.12668 and here https://meridian.allenpress.com/copeia/article-abstract/2014/4/743/10145), and environmental non-profit advocates (here https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-96020-4). These studies showed that many scientists want to dedicate their research projects and careers to helping threatened species, gathering some of the scientific data necessary to better inform conservation strategies—but they don’t know how to do that. Indeed, my survey of environmental-non-profit advocates showed a growing concern that scientists say that their work is helpful for conservation when it often can’t do much to actually help. What can be done about this?
One answer is expert-derived, peer-reviewed, published lists of conservation research priorities. If a scientist wants to answer a research question but isn’t sure if it matters for conservation, they can check these lists—if some version of their question is on there, that’s a good sign that answering it can really help a threatened species. These research priority lists are not a new concept, and have been done for particular species like great white sharks (LINK: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2018.00455/full), for some regions, for some specific research methods, and even for the whole world (https://www.publish.csiro.au/mf/mf11086) .
But many early career scientists, as well as many threatened species of sharks and their relatives, are in the United States, where I live and work, and there has never been a comprehensive list of research priorities for threatened species in US waters before. So we decided to make one, which you can read open access here (https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.12629). To make this list, we used an approach called “expert solicitation,” which is based on the idea that a large group of experts knows more than any one expert (or a small group). We identified all the US-based scientists who work on threatened species, all the US-based environmental non-profit advocates who work on shark issues, all the government fisheries managers whose portfolios include shark fisheries in US coastal states and at the Federal level, and all the commercial fishers who serve on fisheries management councils, resulting in a list of 388 names - and we sent them an invitation to participate in this process.
The resulting list includes 35 outstanding research priorities for threatened species in the United States, ranging from “better understand the effects of different management strategies on sustainability and population recovery” to “assess the cultural importance of sharks and how this influences public support for management options.” You can read all of them in table 1 of the paper.
We also generated a list of 27 outstanding policy priorities, proposed changes to law and management policy that are necessary to help protect these animals. And the respondents also provided a list of the species they think are in the greatest need of conservation attention, including the shortfin mako shark, sawfish, dusky sharks, hammerheads, and oceanic whitetips.
We hope that this list helps early career scientists to more effectively dedicate their research careers to helping species who can use all the help they can get. And we hope that the shark enthusiast community checks it out, too, to learn what is and is not a good cause to support.
Dr. David Shiffman is an interdisciplinary marine conservation biologist who studies threatened species of sharks and how to protect them. His book “Why sharks matter: a deep dive with the world’s most misunderstood predator” comes out May 24th, 2022. Follow him on twitter @ WhySharksMatter where he’s always happy to answer any questions that anyone has about sharks or marine biology.