Diversity of Sharks in the Gulf of Suez, Red Sea, Egypt: A first Annotated Regional Checklist | ||||
| Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries | ||||
| Article 120, Volume 28, Issue 5, September and October 2024, Page 2073-2090 PDF (737.81 K) | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejabf.2024.389792 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Author | ||||
| Shaaban et al. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Diversity of sharks was studied in the Gulf of Suez for a period of two years from January 2021 to December 2022. This is the first annotated checklist of sharks in the Gulf of Suez, a distinctive and crucial fishing area in the Egyptian waters of the Red Sea. It can serve as a baseline for future studies assessing the impacts of various factors, such as targeted and bycatch fisheries, habitat destruction, anthropogenic effects, and global warming on shark populations in this important water body. There were 2377 individual sharks recorded that were captured from the waters of the Gulf of Suez. The study revealed the occurrence of 18 species belonging to 3 orders, 8 families and 12 genera. Of these 18 species, only 5 species namely: Carcharhinus sorrah, Rhizoprionodon acutus, Loxodon macrorhinus, Carcharhinus brevipinna and Mustelus mosis were found to be most abundant contributing about 23, 22, 18, 17, and 16% of the total number of sharks, respectively. The tiger shark, Galeocerdo cuvier constituted 2% of the recorded sharks whereas the rest of the species collectively represented by only 2%. The results revealed that small-sized sharks dominated among the recorded sharks. Of the 18 species recorded, 10 species are considered as migratory sharks and 2 species are potentially dangerous to humans, the tiger shark, Galeocerdo cuveir andthe shortfin mako Isurus oxyrhincus. All species reported in the current study represent a conservation challenge worldwide. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, fourteen species are classified as threatened and four species are categorized as near threatened. Thus, we are raising the concerns about the diversity of sharks in the Gulf of Suez. An urgent necessity exists to create and perform suitable management strategies for conservation of sharks as vital resources. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| The Gulf of Suez; Red Sea; Sharks; Bycatch; Biodiversity; Conservation | ||||
|
Statistics Article View: 111 PDF Download: 133 |
||||
