The DELASMOP project aims to promote the conservation of deep-water ray and shark species.
Over 25% of ray and shark species (elasmobranchs) are threatened with extinction. These animals are vulnerable to various human activities such as overfishing (direct or as bycatch), as they grow slowly and produce a low number of youngsters in each reproductive cycle. The situation is even more worrying for deep-sea elasmobranch species, as they have slower life cycles and the knowledge of their population status is difficult to assess given that they live in habitats that are difficult to access. Therefore, they are, in general, vulnerable animals and are threatened mainly by overfishing and bycatch. Many research works have been carried out in the last decades to better understand aspects of elasmobranch biology, ecology and conservation, but in general, their knowledge is still limited and this prevents conservation actions to be proposed and effectively executed.
The DELASMOP project aims to promote the conservation of deep-water elasmobranchs, through the development of procedures to reduce their capture and mortality resulting from crustacean trawling activities in the Northeast Atlantic, more precisely in the south and southwest coasts of Portugal.
The partnership includes Centro de Ciências do Mar do Algarve (CCMAR), CIIMAR, represented by researcher Ester Dias, and the Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA). It is funded by Save our Seas Foundation and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and counts on the technical support of OLSPS marine.
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