The forgotten sharks and rays of Southeast Asia

Alongside the handful of ‘famous’ sharks and rays – like the great white shark, tiger shark, and manta ray – are thousands more that swim under the radar. These sharks and rays may not be valuable enough for tourism, sexy enough for documentaries, or scary enough for blockbuster movies, but they are equally as deserving of conservation attention. One place where these ‘less glamorous’ sharks and rays are found (and are being lost from) is Southeast Asia.

Southeast Asia is characterized by long coastlines, scattered islands, beautiful coral reefs, and its general dependency on the ocean – which ultimately comes at a cost. Fish populations in the South China Sea alone are just 5-30% of what they once were. Put simply, the region has too many boats chasing too few fishes, an issue difficult to manage due to territorial disputes and violent conflicts over fishing grounds, high rates of poverty, and the demand for seafood from consumers, to name a few.

Fishing gears in this region can stretch far and wide, hooking, engulfing, and trapping all creatures in their path. Many fisheries are ‘multi-species’, which means a variety of species are caught and most, if not all, have value and can be utilized. Sharks and rays are often captured in these multi-species fisheries as ‘valuable secondary bycatch’ – particularly the smaller (think less than one meter at full size), lesser-known ones. These small sharks and rays are then traded and consumed around the region for their meat, although other body parts, such as skin, teeth, gill plates, and cartilage, also have value, including their small fins for inexpensive shark-fin soup. Commonly caught species include the Grey Sharpnose shark (reaching about 70cm in length) and the Bluespotted maskray (reaching around 30cm wide). Have you heard of them? Probably not.

The situation is now bleak – 72.5% of all assessed shark and ray populations in Southeast Asia are in decline, with rays more threatened than sharks. So what needs to be done to help the situation?

Many assume that the solution is black and white: shark and ray fishing should be banned. But the situation is far more complex, and knock-on effects must be considered. If shark and ray fishing were to be banned, and fishermen instead catch and overfish other species, what will the sharks and rays eat? Catching a disproportionate number of other species may cause shark and ray populations to ultimately collapse anyway. Additionally, a substantial number of sharks and rays are caught incidentally, so even if fishing them were banned, many will still end up dead in fishing gear. Instead, more practical, comprehensive solutions that account for the needs of people, as well as animals, are warranted.

One approach is to look at the animals themselves. We can study their ‘life-history’ – how long do they take to mature and breed? How many young do they have? Species that mature faster and have more young will be more resilient to fisheries, while those that mature slowly and have few young will be more vulnerable to fisheries. Management can then be adjusted to suit these differences. We can also look at their diets – which prey do they depend upon for food? This highlights where sharks feed and which species need to be protected to ensure a steady food supply. Have you noticed that a lot of people think about saving sharks, but rarely think about saving sharks’ meals? Prawns, cephalopods (e.g. octopus, squid) and fishes make up an important part of shark and ray diets but are found in numerous dishes and condiments all around the world.

Ultimately, Southeast Asia needs to reduce the number of fishing boats out at sea (whilst creating alternative livelihoods for displaced fishermen), and consumers who are able to must reduce, or stop, their consumption of sea creatures in general. This isn’t just about sharks and rays – we are simply taking too much from the ocean in general.

For years we have heard the narrative that sharks are ‘top of the food chain’, with connotations that this makes them more deserving of protection than other species. But many sharks and rays are in fact mesopredators (mid-ranking predators), and regardless, each animal at every level of the food chain is important and deserving of protection. We have also been taught that we must ‘say no to shark fin soup’ while eating other sea creatures (such as fishes and crustaceans) is normalized. But this ‘normal’ seafood often comes from fisheries that incidentally catch sharks and rays as well, and ‘normal’ seafood is important prey for predators, have their own essential roles in ecosystems, and are equally deserving of life. 

The key to saving sharks and rays is to be less speciesist, and more holistic in our thinking: an ocean full of sharks and rays, but devoid of all other life is not a success story (nor, technically, is it even possible; the sharks and rays would die as well). Every animal in the ocean is valuable – from the big sharks and rays to the small, forgotten ones, and all the way down to the tiny crustaceans, fishes, and algae that they depend on for food.