Taxon name
Carcharhinus brevipinna
(Müller & Henle, 1839)
Uploaded by
National Red List Database
Taxonomic information
Scientific name
Carcharhinus brevipinna
(Müller & Henle, 1839)
Assessed taxon level
Species
Higher level taxonomic groupings
Vertebrates
Fishes
Species authority
(Müller & Henle, 1839)
Location and scope
Specific locality or subnational name or regional name
United Arab Emirates (the)
Scope (of the Assessment)
National
Countries included within the scope of the assessment
United Arab Emirates (the)
Does the assessment cover a marine EEZ area(s)?
Not_assigned
Conservation Status
Qualifying criteria (if given)
A2cd
Criteria system used
IUCN
(see Assessment details)
Assessment rationale/justification
The Spinner Shark occurs throughout UAE inshore and offshore waters. Little specific data are available for this species in the UAE. 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. Both juveniles and adults are valued for meat and fins. 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 30-50% over the past three generation lengths, or about 39 years. It is listed as Vulnerable A2cd.
Assessment details
Assessors/contributors/reviewers listed
UAE National Red List Workshop
Criteria system used
IUCN
Reference for methods given
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.
Further information
Endemism (according to assessment)
Endemic to region
Not assigned
Taxon distribution as listed in assessment
The Spinner Shark occurs throughout UAE waters (Jabado and Ebert 2015). Globally, it is widespread in the tropical Indo-West Pacific and Atlantic Oceans (Last and Stevens 2009).
Is there a map available in assessment?
Yes
Habitat and systems
Ecological system type
Habitat
Habitat details as listed in assessment
The Spinner Shark occurs in inshore and offshore waters on continental and insular shelves to depths of 75-100 m (Jabado and Ebert 2015). It is most common shallower than 30 m and also occurs in bays and off river mouths. It attains a maximum size of about 283 cm total length (TL). Males mature at ~177 cm TL, females mature at around 159 cm TL (Jabado and Ebert 2015). The species has an 11-15 month gestation period and is placentally viviparous, producing 3-20 pups (usually 7-11) with a size at birth of 48-55 cm TL. The reproductive cycle is two years (Castro 1993). There are no age data from the region, but generation length is suspected to be around 13 years based on work in South Africa (Allen and Wintner 2002) suggesting maturity at about 9 years and maximum age at about 17 years. In the Tasman Sea, age at maturity for females and males was 10.1 and 8.5 years, respectively (Geraghty et al. 2015).
Threats and conservation measures listed
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 Arabian Gulf are experiencing high levels of disturbance and quickly deteriorating due to major impacts from development activities (including dredging and reclamation), desalination plants, industrial activities, habitat destruction through the removal of shallow productive areas and major shipping lanes (Sheppard et al. 2010).
Publication
Ralph, G.M., Stump, E., Linardich, C., Bullock, R.W., Carpenter, K.E., Allen D.J., Hilton-Taylor, C., Al Mheiri, R., and Alshamsi, O. 2021. UAE National Red List of Marine Species: Reef-building corals, cartilaginous fishes and select bony fishes. 2021. Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.