Abstract
We present a compilation of published telemetric results, complemented by the addition of new results where necessary, to justify the expansion of the marine protected areas in the Eastern Pacific. In addition, we furnish evidence that fishing effort by commercial vessels, carrying position-monitoring, satellite-communicating radio beacons, has diminished within their boundaries. Researchers have described the movement ecology of nine species of sharks at these insular sites: the Galapagos archipelago off Ecuador, Malpelo Island off Colombia, Cocos Island off Costa Rica, and the Revillagigedo archipelago off Mexico. Mainly two telemetric techniques have been utilized: (1) placing coded ultrasonic beacons on individuals and detecting their presence with autonomous receivers deployed along the coasts of the islands and (2) outfitting individuals with SPOT and PSAT tags: the former enabling the ARGOS satellite to detect surface-swimming individuals, the latter releasing from individuals and rising to the surface to transmit geolocation based-positions to the same satellite. This information has enabled Mexico to create the Revillagigedo National Park, Colombia to increase the size of the Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary, and Costa Rica to create a protective corridor between Cocos and the Las Gemelas seamounts. Satellite tracking of sharks outside the current boundaries of the Galapagos Marine Reserve supports the need to increase its size in the future. Hence, telemetric studies have played and continue to serve an essential role in providing a well-supported rationale for research managers to match the size of their marine reserves to the spatial ecologies of the species within them.
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25 March 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-022-01234-8
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Acknowledgements
We would like to express our appreciation to Galo Quezada and Washington Tapia, who provided the permit (Klimley PC-37-11) to conduct tagging studies in the Galapagos National Sanctuary. Eduardo Espinosa and Harry Reyes are thanked for overseeing for the Parque National Galapagos the research that was completed in the Galapagos archipelago. Many researchers helped in both the tagging and analysis of the resulting detection data, particularly Frida Lara-Lizardi, Robert Rubin, and Alex Antoniou of Fins Attached provided ship time and funds for the purchase of acoustic and satellite tags as well as autonomous receivers. Scott Henderson of Conservation International was an early proponent of protecting sharks in the ETP. His input led to the first grant from 2001 to 2003 given by the Committee for Research and Exploration at the National Geographic Society, entitled “Tracking hammerhead sharks for creation of marine reserves” (principal investigator: senior author). That was followed by grants to the same investigator in 2007–2008, 2007–2008, 2009, and 2012. Additional funding for the tagging studies was provided by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in 2004–2005, the Whitley Fund for Nature from 2005 to 2015, the World Wildlife Fund in 2007–2008, the International Community Foundation in 2009–2010, Conservation International in 2010–2011, the Galapagos Conservancy in 2010–2011 and 2011–2012, and Iris and Michael Smith in 2018-2020. Randal Arauz and George Shillinger obtained funding from private donors for research studies conducted at Cocos and the Galapagos Islands, respectively. This work was completed under the auspice of two Animal Care Protocols obtained by the senior author at the University of California, Davis: (1) 12140 — “Tracking hammerhead sharks for creation of marine reserves” and (2) 16022 — “Tracking sharks in the open ocean.” The acoustic tag detections and satellite tracks presented in this article are curated by CPP at MigraMar, local data for (1) the Revillagigedos Islands are present in a database maintained by Pelagios Kakunjá, (2) the detections at Cocos Island are in a database kept by Centro de Rescate de Especies Marinas Amenazadas (CREMA) and the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), (3) files of acoustic detections and satellite tracks for Malpelo Island are present in a database maintained by Fundación Malpelo y Otros Ecosistemas Marinos, and (4) the acoustic detections for the Galapagos archipelago are present in the database of OTN and satellite tracks for the Galapagos archipelago are under curatorship of ARH at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
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The contributions of the authors to the manuscript are given in the following work statement. APK planned studies, secured funding, participated in field work and analyses, wrote relevant article, reviewed this manuscript; RA secured funding, participated in field work and analyses; SB planned studies, secured funding, participated in field work and analyses, wrote germane article, reviewed this manuscript; EJC analyzed data, wrote relevant article, reviewed this manuscript; NC conducted analyses of fishing effort in reserves, provided figures, reviewed this manuscript; EE participated in the field work, oversaw research Galapagos Park Service; JG obtained funding, participated in field work; AH, planned studies, secured funding, participated in field work and analyses, wrote relevant article, reviewed this manuscript; MEH participated in field work and analyses, provided data used in figure, reviewed manuscript; EN analyzed data, wrote relevant article, reviewed this manuscript; JTK planned studies, participated in field work and analyses, wrote relevant article, reviewed this manuscript; CF provided funding for tagging sharks at the Revillagigedos Islands, Cocos Island, and the Galapagos Islands, offered feedback on the proposals, tagged sharks at the three islands, plotted tracks of tiger sharks, displayed tracks of tiger shark on the OCEARCH website; FL tagged sharks with ultrasonic and satellite transmitters at Malpelo Island, kept database of tagging data, provided data to APK during writing of article; GS secured funding for research activities in the Galapagos Islands, tagged sharks with pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATS) and smart position or temperature transmitting (SPOT) tags, trained colleagues in the Galapagos Islands in the fin-attachment satellite tagging technique, analyzed data from Galapagos shark satellite tagging efforts, published data from the Galapagos Islands shark tagging effort in at least three different publications, including a book chapter with several MigraMar coauthors, provided data, images, analyses, and editorial content in support the justification for the Galapagos Marine Reserve; GS tagged sharks with ultrasonic transmitters at Malpelo Island, analyzed data from tagged sharks, helped prepare figures, and helped write two papers, from which figures were used in manuscript; TS secured funding for research activities at Cocos Island from a private source, made 19 cruises to Cocos and the Galapagos Islands, tagged sharks at Cocos Islands, helped in the production of the major paper on shark movements at Cocos Island; CP oversaw analyses of fishing effort in reserves, provided figure of satellite tracks, and reviewed this manuscript.
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All sources of funding for these studies are acknowledged within the review. Animal Care Protocols for the tagging pelagic sharks were obtained from the University of California, Davis’ Animal Care Committee, which includes four certified veterinarians. The references for the protocols are given within the manuscript. The databases with acoustic tag detections and satellite tracking are identified in the Acknowledgements. Copyright permissions for three figures published earlier by the authors that are discussed in this review paper will be obtained from the Copyright Clearing House, contingent upon the article being accepted for publication. All authors have read the manuscript, made editorial contributions, and are willing to be listed as authors on this paper.
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The original online version of this article was revised: Modifications have been made to the Author Group, Acknowledgements, and Author contribution sections. Full information regarding the corrections made can be found in the correction for this article.
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Klimley, A.P., Arauz, R., Bessudo, S. et al. Studies of the movement ecology of sharks justify the existence and expansion of marine protected areas in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Environ Biol Fish 105, 2133–2153 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-021-01204-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-021-01204-6