Climate change is forcing a critically endangered species of shark to adapt to new habitats. If these sharks are unable to, then they face dying out for good.
The whitefin swellshark (Cephaloscyllium albipinnum) is a species of catshark that inhabits deeper waters off the south and east coasts of Australia.
When threatened, it swallows water and swells up to look bigger in front of predators and make itself harder to eat.
Its exact population numbers are unknown, but the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has designated the species as critically endangered due to declines from intensive fishing activities. In the past 45 years, more than 80 percent of its population has been lost.
Since these sharks live mostly near the seafloor, they can be easily scooped up by trawling. Those that are caught are usually kept to be sold for their meat.
Researchers at the University of Plymouth suggest that changes in the ocean, including higher sea temperatures and shifts in ocean chemistry predicted to take place by the end of the century, will make the sharks more vulnerable.
They used computer modeling to find that up to 70 percent of currently suitable habitats will be lost over the next 75 years.
An area within the Great Australian Bight could offer refuge, providing whitefin swellshark populations with the food and conditions they need to survive.
The problem is that the sharks may need to travel between 43.5 and 683.5 in order to reach this destination. They also probably won’t be the only marine species seeking shelter in the surrounding area. Others will likely be forced to migrate as they leave regions affected by climate change.
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The situation seems dire for the sharks, but the researchers still have hope for their survival because Australia is one of the most proactive nations in the world when it comes to conservation management.
“Most people will probably have never seen them, but whitefin swellsharks are an incredibly pretty species. However, despite them being listed as critically endangered, we actually know very little about their behavior given that their habitats are deep in the ocean,” said Kerry Brown, the lead author of the study.
“What we do know is that they have been on our planet for a very long time, so will have had to adapt to changes in their environment before. However, the threat to their future survival now is very real unless we take urgent steps to protect them.”
Marine species successfully relocating to different areas of the ocean is nothing new, so perhaps whitefin swellsharks can do the same.
Humans have the ability to help them out by closing down more fishing areas and improving fishing methods.
The study was published in PeerJ.
