Carcharhinus leiodon | UAE National Red List of Marine Species: Reef-building corals, cartilaginous fishes and select bony fishes
Taxa
Carcharhinus leiodon | Garrick, 1985
Publication
Asessment status in full
Endangered
Assessment status abreviation
EN
Assessment status criteria
A2cd
Assessment rationale/justification
The Smoothtooth Blacktip Shark occurs throughout UAE inshore waters and is endemic to the Arabian Sea region. Little specific data are available for this species in the UAE. On the global-level, a limited number of specimens have been reported, in part due to probable confusion with other very similar and more common Carcharhinus species. Although there are limited data on its status, other Carcharhinus species in the Arabian Gulf have undergone significant declines due to exploitation. It has a relatively low reproductive capacity, which causes it to be susceptible to over-exploitation. It is apparently highly migratory, and has slow life history characteristics including low fecundity and a low annual rate of population increase. Considering this, the species has a low capacity to recover from even moderate levels of exploitation. It is especially susceptible to exploitation (target and bycatch) in many largely unregulated gill net, longline and trawl fisheries that operate within its range outside and surrounding UAE waters. Some management measures are now in place in the Arabian Sea region, although domestic fisheries are likely to continue. Though data specifically from the UAE are not available, individuals in the UAE are a component of a larger, interconnected and migratory population that occurs broadly in the north-western Indian Ocean. It is inferred that declines reported in the Arabian Sea region are representative of its status in the UAE. Based on recorded levels of exploitation and decline in habitat quality, it is suspected to have declined by 50-80% over the past three generation lengths, or about 25 years. It is listed as Endangered A2cd.
Assessment year
2019
Assessors/contributors/reviewers listed
UAE National Red List Workshop
Affliation of assessor(s)/contributors/reviewers listed on assessment
Government
IGO
Assessor affiliation specific
Government|IGO
Criteria system specifics
IUCN v3.1
Criteria system used
IUCN
Criteria Citation
IUCN. 2012. IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1, Second edition. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. iv + 32pp pp. And IUCN. 2012. Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional and National Levels: Version 4.0. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN. iii + 41pp.
Endemic to region
No
Endemism Notes
Is an endemic?: No
Endemism specifics: Endemic to the Arabian Sea region
Endemism specifics: Endemic to the Arabian Sea region
Threats listed in assessment
Information pertaining to threats specific to the UAE are unavailable. This species is impacted by target (for fins and their valuable meat) and bycatch fisheries that are active elsewhere in its range. Marine habitats in the region have experienced high levels of disturbance and are quickly deteriorating due to major impacts from development activities (Sheppard et al. 2010). One of the known centres of abundance around Kuwait is also subject to habitat degradation (Moore et al. 2013) and the species was recently found to harbor high levels of mercury there (Moore et al. 2015).
Conservation Measures
Conservation measures:
Conservation measures notes:
Required conservation measures:
Scientific Name | Kingdom | Phylum | Class | Order | Family | Genus |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Carcharhinus leiodon | Animalia | Chordata | Chondrichthyes | Carcharhiniformes | Carcharhinidae | Carcharhinus |