Using unconventional sources of information for identifying critical areas for the endangered guitarfish in Greece
Ioannis Giovos, Archontia Chatzispyrou, Nickos Doumpas, Vasilis-Orestis Stoilas, Dimitrios K. Moutopoulos
iSea, Environmental Organisation for the Preservation of the Aquatic Ecosystems, Thessaloniki, GREECE
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters, Anavyssos, 19013, Attica, GREECE
Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece, Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture Technology, Mesolonghi, GREECE
Abstract
Guitarfishes characterized by special life history traits and comprised a very fragile resource, whereas the insufficient scientific information makes them a group for major conservation concern of the world oceans. The present study aims to present new records on guitarfishes based on unconventional data collection comprised by citizen scientists’ reports, social and mass media search, in-depth targeted interviews with expert fishermen and on official reconstructed fisheries statistics. This multiple-folds analysis represents a valuable case study for determining potentially important areas for these endangered species with scarcity of records in Greece. Results exhibited a high concertation of guitarfish sightings in two areas of the Greek Aegean part, both very close to published sightings from the Aegean coast of Turkey. We found that the axis of North to South, from Lesvos Island down to Rhodes Island is a critical area for guitarfish in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Additional information on guitarfish sightings will confirm our findings, enrich our knowledge on guitarfish occurrence in the Greek Seas and contribute in future recommendations on their protection, to avoid extinction of these rare batoids in the area.
Keywords: Rhinobatidae, eastern Mediterranean, hot spots, citizen science, Local Ecological Knowledge, Rhinobatos rhinobatos, Glaucostegus cemiculus
References
Abdel-Aziz, S.H., Khalil, A.N., Abdel-Maguidö, S.A. (1993). Food and feeding habits of the common guitarfish, Rhinobatos rhinobatos in the Egyptian Mediterranean waters. Indian Journal of Marine Sciences 22: 287-290.
Ainsworth, C.H. (2011) Quantifying species abundance trends in the Northern Gulf of California using local ecological knowledge. Marine and Coastal Fisheries 3: 190-218.
Akyol, O., Capapé, C. (2014) Distribution of blackchin guitarfish Rhinobatos cemiculus E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817 (Elasmobranchii: Rhinobatidae) with first records from İzmir Bay (Turkey, northeastern Aegean Sea). Turkish
Journal of Zoology 38: 460-465.
Başusta, A., Başusta, N., Sulikowski J.A., Driggers, W.B., Demirhan, S. A., Çiçek, E. (2012) Length-weight relationships for nine species of batoids from the Iskenderun Bay, Turkey. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 28:850-851.
dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0426.2012.02013.x
Başusta, N., Demirhan, S.A., Çiçek, E., Başusta, A., Kuleli, T. (2008) Age and growth of the common guitarfish, Rhinobatos rhinobatos (Linnaeus, 1758), in Iskenderun Bay (northeastern Mediterranean, Turkey). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 88: 837-842.
Başusta, N., Erdem, U. (2000) A study on the pelagic and demersal fishes in Iskenderun Bay. Turkish Journal of Zoology 24: 1-19.
Beddington, J.R., Agnew, D.J., Clark, C.W. (2007) Current problems in the management of marine fisheries. Science 316: 1713-1716.
Bonfl, R. (1994) Overview of World Elasmobranch Fisheries. FAO Fisheries Technical Papers 341, FAO, Rome, 119 pp.
Bradai, M.N., Soldo, A. (2016) Rhinobatos rhinobatos. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T63131A16527789 and e.T63132A81165103. Downloaded on 06 December 2017.
Brotz, L., Cheung, W.W., Kleisner, K., Pakhomov, E., Pauly, D. (2012) Increasing jellyfish populations: trends in large marine ecosystems. Hydrobiologia 690: 3-20.
Bunce, M., Rodwell, L.D., Gibb, R., Mee, L. (2008) Shifting baselines in fishers’ perceptions of island reef fishery degradation. Ocean and Coastal Management 51: 285-302.
Corsini-Foka, M. (2009) Uncommon fishes from Rhodes and nearby marine region (SE Aegean Sea, Greece). Journal of Biological Research 12: 125-133.
Çek, S., Başusta, N., Demirhan, S.A., Karalar, M. (2009) Biological observations on the common guitarfish Rhinobatos rhinobatos from İskenderun Bay (Turkey, Eastern Mediterranean). Animal Biology 59: 211-230.
Davis, A., Wagner, J.R. (2003) Who knows? On the importance of identifying “experts” when researching local ecological knowledge. Human Ecology 31(3): 463-489.
Dulvy, N.K., Allen, D.J., Ralph, G.M., Walls, R.H.L. (2016) The Conservation Status of Sharks, Rays and Chimaeras in the Mediterranean Sea. (Brochure) IUCN, Malaga, Spain.
Enajjar, S., Bradai, M.N., Bouain, A. (2012) Age, growth and sexual maturity of the blackchin guitarfish Rhinobatos cemiculus in the Gulf of Gabès (southern Tunisia, central). Cahiers de Biologie Marine 53: 17-23.
Ferretti, F., Myers R.A., Serena, F., Lotze, H.K. (2008) Loss of large predatory sharks from the Mediterranean Sea. Conservation Biology 22: 952-964. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.00938.x
Ferretti, F., Osio, G.C., Jenkins, C.J., Rosenberg, A.A., Lotze, H.K. (2013) Long-term change in a meso-predator community in response to prolonged and heterogeneous human impact. Scientific Reports 3: 1057.
Filiz, H., Bilge, G., Giannetto, D., Yapıcı, S. (2016) New sighting of the endangered species blackchin guitarfish, Rhinobatos cemiculus, in the South Aegean Sea. Marine Biodiversity Records 9:1-4.
Gardiner, M., Allee, L., Brown, P., Losey, J., Roy, H., Smyth, R. (2012) Lessons from lady beetles: accuracy of monitoring data from US and UK citizen-science programs. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 10: 471-476.
Giovos, I., Ganias, K., Garagouni, M., Gonzalvo, J. (2016) Social media in the service of conservation: a case study of dolphins in the Hellenic Seas. Aquatic Mammals 42(1):12-19. doi:10.1578/AM.42.1.2016.12
Gökçe, G., Çekiç, M., Filiz, H. (2010) Length-weight relationships of marine fishes off Yumurtalık coast (Iskenderun Bay), Turkey. Turkish Journal of Zoology 34: 101-104. doi:10.3906/zoo-0905-33
Haggan, N., Neis, B., Baird, I.G. (2007) Fishers’ Knowledge in Fisheries Science and Management. Coastal Management Sourcebooks. UNESCO, Paris, France.
ICES (2010) Report of the ICES Advisory Committee, 2010. ICES Advice, 2010. Book 9. 299 pp.
Ismen, A., Yigin, C., Ismen, P. (2007) Age, growth, reproductive biology and feed of the common guitarfish (Rhinobatos rhinobatos Linnaeus, 1758) in Iskenderun Bay, the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Fisheries Research 84:263-269.
Johannes, R.E., Freeman, M.M., Hamilton, R.J. (2000) Ignore fishers’ knowledge and miss the boat. Fish and Fisheries 1: 257-271.
Keskin, C., Turan, C., Ergüden, D. (2011). Distribution of the demersal fishes on the continental shelves of the Levantine and North Aegean Seas (Eastern Mediterranean). Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 11: 413-423.
Lteif, M., Mouawad, R., Sharif Jemaa, S., Gaby Khalaf, G., Philippe Lenfant, P., Verdoit-Jarraya, M. (2016) The length-weight relationships of three sharks and five batoids in the Lebanese marine waters, eastern Mediterranean. Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research 42: 475-477.
Moutopoulos, D.K., Dimitriou, E., Katselis, G., Koutsikopoulos, C. (2017) Typology of illegal fishing in transitional waters: Fisheries infringement records from Mesolonghi-Etolikon lagoons (Ionian Sea, Greece). Ocean and Coastal
Management 141: 20-28.
Moutopoulos, D.K., Koutsikopoulos, C. (2014) Fishing strange data in national fisheries statistics of Greece. Marine Policy 48: 114-122.
Moutopoulos, D.K., Tsikliras, A.C., Stergiou, K.I. (2015) Reconstruction of Greek fishery catches by fishing gear and area (1950-2010). Fisheries Centre Working Paper #2015-11, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 14pp.
Newell, B.M. (2017) Status Review Report of Two Species of Guitarfish: Rhinobatos rhinobatos and Rhinobatos cemiculus. Report to National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Protected Resources. 62 pp.
Notarbartolo di Sciara, G., Bradai, M.N., Morey, G., Brahim, K., Camara L., Litvinov, F., Dulvy, N., Doumbouya, F., Ducrocq, M., Heenan, A., Sidi, N. (2016) Glaucostegus cemiculus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
2016: e.T63132A104009894. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T63132A104009894.en. Downloaded on 06 February 2018.
Öğretmen, F., Yılmaz, F., Koç, H.T. (2016) An investigation on fishes of Gökova Bay (Southern Aegean Sea). BAÜ Fen Bil. Enst. Dergisi 7(2): 19-36.
Peristeraki, P., Megalofonou, P. (2007) Sharks and rays. In: SoHelFI, 2007, State of Hellenic Fisheries, (eds., Papaconstantinou, C., Zenetos, A., Vassilopoulou, V., Tserpes, G.), HCMR Publ., pp. 433-439.
Shackeroff, J.M., Campbell, L.M. (2007) Traditional ecological knowledge in conservation research: problems and prospects for their constructive engagement. Conservation and Society 5: 343.
Stephenson, R.L., Paul, S., Pastoors, M.A., Kraan, M., Holm, P., Wiber, M., Mackinson, S., Dankel, D.J., Brooks, K., Benson, A. (2016) Integrating fishers’ knowledgeresearch in science and management. ICES Journal of Marine Science 73: 1459-1465.
Tingley, D., Ásmundsson, J., Borodzicz, E., Conides, A., Drakeford, B., Runar Eðvarðsson, R., Holm, D., Kapiris, K., Kuikka, S., Mortensen, B. (2010) Risk identification and perception in the fisheries sector: comparison between the
Faroes, Greece, Iceland and UK. Marine Policy 34: 1249-1260.
Tsikliras, A.C., Moutopoulos, D.K., Stergiou, K.I. (2007) Reconstruction of Greek marine fisheries landings and comparison of National with FAO statistics. In: Reconstruction of Marine Fisheries Catches for Key Countries and
Regions (1950-2005) (eds., Zeller, D., Pauly, D.), Fisheries Centre Research Reports 15(2), University of British Columbia, pp.121-137.
Uprety, Y., Asselin, H., Bergeron, Y., Doyon, F., Boucher, J.F. (2012) Contribution of traditional knowledge to ecological restoration: practices and applications. Ecoscience 19(3): 225-237. doi.org/10.2980/19-3-3530.
Yaglioglu, D., Deniz, T., Gurlek, M., Erguden, D., Turan, C. (2015). Elasmobranch bycatch in a bottom trawl fishery in the Iskenderun Bay, northeastern Mediterranean. Cahiers de Biologie Marine 56: 237-243.
