Mohsen Rezaie-Atagholipour
This posting is from Hakai Magazine, an online publication about science and modern society in coastal ecosystems. Study much more stories like this at hakaimagazine.com.
On a sultry autumn afternoon in 2019, as fishermen hauled in a web of Persian Gulf shrimp, Mohsen Rezaie-Atagholipour stood by waiting to sort by the scraps. A marine biologist at Iran’s Qeshm Environmental Conservation Institute, Rezaie-Atagholipour was scouting for the sharks and rays that the fishermen unintentionally snagged in their nets. But as he weighed and measured numerous acquainted creatures—collecting knowledge for Iran’s first shark and ray conservation program—something sudden caught his eye: a modest olive environmentally friendly ray with two small tentacles just below its eyes. The biologist appeared at the creature in disbelief: “I found the tentacled butterfly ray.”
In 2017, the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature mentioned the tentacled butterfly ray as critically endangered, and perhaps extinct. The past time any one experienced recorded viewing one particular was in 1986, off Pakistan. The species was assumed to have been wiped out across its variety, from the Crimson Sea to the western Bay of Bengal. Regrettably, the animal Rezaie-Atagholipour discovered was dead.
“All of the scientists we have spoken to who do the job in India, Pakistan, and the area, have in no way noticed it, and they’ve been working there for rather a lengthy time,” claims Rima Jabado, a maritime scientist and founder of the United Arab Emirates–based Elasmo Venture, who labored with Rezaie-Atagholipour and others to document the discovery in a new paper. “We’re psyched it is even now in Iran.”
But from that initial, shocking discovery, the tentacled butterfly rays just held turning up. Concerning Oct 2019 and November 2020, Rezaie-Atagholipour surveyed 96 hauls from shrimp trawlers functioning in the Gulf of Oman and the eastern Persian Gulf and located a complete of 367 tentacled butterfly rays in 39 catches. The species designed up approximately 15 percent of all the rays in the by-capture.
Shrimp trawlers capture a sizeable number of rays as by-catch. Mohsen Rezaie-Atagholipour’s work showed that of this ray by-capture, about 15 % were being tentacled butterfly rays, however none of the rays in this picture, which showcases that by-catch, are the imperiled species. Mohsen Rezaie-Atagholipour/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/52/8d/528dd2e4-a44a-4eee-97df-4d1848c7f109/trawl_haul_web.jpg)
“That was very surprising,” Rezaie-Atagholipour states. The experts suspect that the area off southern Iran may possibly be the tentacled butterfly ray’s previous stronghold.
For Hamid Reza Esmaeili, a fish biologist at Iran’s Shiraz University who wasn’t included in the study, this “lost and found” discovery supplies an prospect for experts to study the ecology and behavior of this poorly recognized species.
But the quite fishing pursuits that helped experts find the imperiled ray also threaten its existence. In a separate examine, Jabado and her colleagues observed that overfishing disproportionately influences species of sharks, rays, and chimeras identified in tropical and subtropical coastal waters, such as in the northern Indian Ocean. “We have serious fishing stress from the range of international locations functioning here,” she states. “There’s sort of nowhere to disguise.”
Even though Iranian trawlers are not focusing on rays, they normally choose them up as by-catch. Thanks to prolonged haul hrs, the rays normally die before the nets are even pulled out of the h2o. Most shrimpers sell their by-capture at a minimal cost to fish-food makers.
Rezaie-Atagholipour ideas to get the job done with fishing communities to reduce by-catch premiums. 1 method could be to use turtle excluder units. Made of metallic and mesh, and put at the neck of a trawl internet, these equipment have been demonstrated to minimize ray by-catch by 18 to 59 p.c.
Abdulnoor Malahi, a fisherman doing work on a shrimp trawler in Iran, welcomes the use of such products, delivered they really do not prohibit his shrimp catch. But he believes the serious option is to ban trawling. With out that, numerous marine animals stand to be wiped out, he says. And the tentacled butterfly ray might go extinct for genuine.
This report is from Hakai Magazine, an on the web publication about science and culture in coastal ecosystems. Study extra stories like this at hakaimagazine.com.
Linked tales from Hakai Magazine:
• Early-Occupation Researchers Deal with a Wall of Unpaid Positions
Advised Video clips
