Combined Local Fisheries Knowledge with Novel Ecology Survey Methods to Identify and Understand Critical Elasmobranch Habitats and Their Threats

Elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) are an iconic groups of species, however, overfishing and poor management has driven around 40% of NE Atlantic species to be threatened with extinction. MPAs represent an effective conservation strategy, however, to be successful, they must be designed to encompass critical elasmobranch habitats (e.g. hotspots, nursery-grounds). A key step towards this is advancing our understanding of critical elasmobranch habitats and underlying environmental drivers. This project will integrate novel, cutting-edge elasmobranch field survey techniques (drifting baited cameras) with social science (e.g. semi-structured interviews) to identify critical elasmobranch habitats and threat overlap.