This A3 poster presents a visual summary of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Categories applied to Australia's 328 species of sharks, rays and chimaeras by The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021. The assessments show that sharks and their relatives are faring better in Australia than in the rest of the world, with a relatively low level of threatened species. People who manage and conserve sharks can see which species most urgently need attention, and have a benchmark for measuring future changes in their status.

Related information

• The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021 [publication]
• Threatened shark species ‘out of sight out of mind’: first complete national assessment of Australia’s sharks and rays [media release]
• The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays [QA fact sheet]
• The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021 [video]

This four-page fact sheet accompanies The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021. It provides contextual background for the action plan by addressing these five questions:

• What is the Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021?
• Why do we need a shark action plan?
• Why was the IUCN Framework used to assess the extinction risk of sharks?
• How does the shark action plan deal with subpopulation structure?
• What other plans and assessmens exist for sharks in Australia and how do they differ from the shark action plan?

Related information

• The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021 [publication]
• Threatened shark species ‘out of sight out of mind’: first complete national assessment of Australia’s sharks and rays [media release]
• The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021 [A3 summary poster]
• The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021 [video]

This report is part of a series of eco-narrative documents that synthesize our existing knowledge of Australia’s individual Marine Parks. This series is a product of the National Environmental Science Program Marine Biodiversity Hub Project D3, which seeks to determine the status of marine biodiversity assets on the continental shelf to inform monitoring of Australian Marine Parks. The South-west Corner Marine Park contains large areas of high biodiversity and benthic productivity, although most of the Marine Park still remains to be surveyed. The Park is defined by extensive plains across the continental shelf covered by mixed communities of macroalgae, seagrasses and sponges. Since these plains cover ~95% of the surveyed area, such communities account for a large proportion of benthic productivity and biodiversity in the region. Black and octocorals, hydroids and bryozoans are present in deeper areas of the continental shelf, while areas deeper than 120 m are mostly formed by soft sediments. A total of 140 fish species across 61 families were identified in the Marine Park, including several shark species and other commercially targeted species. The Park is also habitat for numerous seabirds and migratory passage for several cetacean species.

This report presents a case study of how to improve the quality control and interoperability of marine spatial data, and focuses on the quality control of fish and shark annotations from baited remote underwater stereo-video (stereo-BRUV) imagery. The GlobalArchive-CheckEM service conducts a series of quality control checks on annotation data against life-history information, based on the Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota (CAAB). This report provides a ‘how-to guide’ for CheckEM and we propose that, in addition to review by expert fish ecologists, any fish and shark image annotations collected in Australia should be validated using CheckEM. Data validation, quality control and interoperability of spatial data are key to enable data discovery and re-use for biodiversity reporting and science communication. This report outlines how Findable Accessible Interoperable Reproducible (FAIR) aspects of marine data can be improved and implemented at a national scale.

Overfshing is the primary cause of marine defaunation, yet declines in and increasing extinction risks of individual species are difcult to measure, particularly for the largest predators found in the high seas. Here we calculate two well-established indicators to track progress towards Aichi Biodiversity Targets and Sustainable Development Goals: the Living Planet Index (a measure of changes in abundance aggregated from 57 abundance time-series datasets for 18 oceanic shark and ray species) and the Red List Index (a measure of change in extinction risk calculated for all 31 oceanic species of sharks and rays). We fnd that, since 1970, the global abundance of oceanic sharks and rays has declined by 71% owing to an 18-fold increase in relative fshing pressure. This depletion has increased the global extinction risk to the point at which three-quarters of the species comprising this functionally important assemblage are threatened with extinction. Strict prohibitions and precautionary science-based catch limits are urgently needed to avert population collapse, avoid the disruption of ecological functions and promote species recovery.

An annotated checklist of chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, batoids, and chimaeras) occurring in South African waters is presented. The checklist is the result of decades of research and on-going systematic revisions of the regional fauna. The chondrichthyan fauna of South Africa is one of the richest in the world with 191 species, comprising 50 families and 103 genera. It consists of 30 families, 64 genera, and 111 species of sharks; 17 families, 36 genera, and 72 species of batoids; and, 3 families, 5 genera, and 8 species of chimaeras. The most species-rich shark families are the whaler sharks Carcharhinidae with 20 species followed by the deepwater catsharks Pentanchidae with 13 species. The most speciesrich batoid families are the hardnose stakes Rajidae with at least 21 species followed by the stingrays Dasyatidae with 13 species. This monograph represents the first detailed annotated checklist of chondrichthyans from South Africa in over 30 years.

The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021 is the first action plan for Australia’s chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, rays, and chimaeras). This book presents a comprehensive and consistent review of the extinction risk of all 328 species occurring in Australian waters, including Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters. It provides a benchmark from which changes in population and extinction risk can be measured, and to help guide management for their conservation. This Action Plan also serves to raise the profile of the diversity and conservation needs of Australia’s sharks, rays, and chimaeras. The majority of the fauna is secure, although roughly one in eight species is threatened with extinction. The Action Plan presents specific actions required to address vast knowledge gaps, and outlines conservation objectives for each species. It will help the Commonwealth and the states and territories prioritise species for conservation listing, research, and management. This book is a call to action to secure all of Australia’s sharks, rays, and chimaeras.