JAKARTA — A thresher shark conservation effort in eastern Indonesia focusing on alternative sources of income has reduced up to 90% of catches of the globally endangered species, a new study shows. For decades, the pelagic thresher shark (Alopias pelagicus) has been a primary target for small-scale fishing communities in Alor Archipelago of Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province for decades, sustaining subsistence livelihoods and serving as a protein source. However, this shark’s population across the Indo-Pacific has dwindled 50-79% over the last three generations, with Indonesia — as the world’s largest shark fishing nation — seeing severe declines of an estimated reduction of up to 83%. A group of researchers and conservationists from Indonesia and the U.K. recently published their study showing that implementing zero thresher fishing coupled with bottom-up livelihood-based conservation intervention lowered shark catches by 91% among participating fishers compared with non-participants. The participants also experienced increases in their income, in some cases by 5.2 times relative to the income before the intervention. “The rationale behind safe-guarding manta rays and whale sharks lies in their non-extractive value, notably from tourism (…) In contrast, pelagic threshers continue to be valued as an extractive fisheries resource, particularly for their fins and meat, which are consumed locally,” Rafid A. Shidqi, a Ph.D. student at Duke University and co-founder of Thresher Shark Indonesia who is the lead author, wrote in the paper published Feb. 11 in the journal Oryx. A pelagic thresher shark (Alopias pelagicus). Image by Rafn Ingi Finnsson via Flickr…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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