July 24, 2019 — Ocean-dwelling sharks often like to hang out in areas that also get frequented by industrial fishing ships, which puts them at grave risk of being caught either for food or as bycatch.
That’s according to a new study in the journal Nature that mapped the activity of 23 shark species and fishing vessels around the globe.
Researchers tracked more than 1,500 sharks with satellite tags and combined that data with information on ship movements taken from safety technology that vessels use to avoid collisions at sea.
“Tens of millions of these pelagic sharks are being caught by industrialized fisheries in areas where there’s little or no management, and some populations have declined as a result,” says David Sims, a U.K.-based marine ecologist at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth and the University of Southampton.
Fishing vessels can catch sharks accidentally, because their long lines can extend for miles and have more than 1,000 hooks.