Alopias superciliosus | UAE National Red List of Marine Species: Reef-building corals, cartilaginous fishes and select bony fishes
Taxa
Alopias superciliosus | Lowe, 1841
Publication
Asessment status in full
Endangered
Assessment status abreviation
EN
Assessment status criteria
A2bd
Assessment rationale/justification
In UAE waters, the Bigeye Thresher Shark occurs only in the Sea of Oman. 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 and under-reported gillnet and longline fisheries that operate within its range outside and surrounding UAE waters. Some management measures are now in place in the Arabian Sea region (i.e. through the IOTC), although domestic fisheries are likely to continue. A total ban of fishing for this species has been in place in UAE waters since 2019. 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. This species faces intense fishing pressures throughout the Arabian Sea. Based on fisheries data and recorded levels of exploitation, it is suspected to have declined by at least 50% over the past three generation lengths, or about 57 years. It is listed as Endangered A2bd.
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
Not_assigned
Endemism Notes
Is an endemic?: Not_assigned
Threats listed in assessment
Information pertaining to threats specific to the UAE are unavailable. Thresher sharks are impacted by target (for fins and their valuable meat) and bycatch fisheries throughout their range. Finning and discarding of carcasses has also been reported, especially in offshore and high seas fisheries (Anderson and Simpfendorfer 2005, IOTC 2006). Hooking mortality is apparently very high, between 60-70% of fish caught are dead on haulback (Coehlo et al. 2011, IOTC 2016). The Bigeye Thresher Shark has the lowest intrinsic rebound potential and least resistance to fisheries of the genus (Chen et al. 1997).
Conservation Measures
Conservation measures:
Conservation measures notes:
Required conservation measures:
Scientific Name | Kingdom | Phylum | Class | Order | Family | Genus |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alopias superciliosus | Animalia | Chordata | Chondrichthyes | Lamniformes | Alopiidae | Alopias |