Shark scientists in Anguilla have formally recorded four new species in the country’s waters thanks to underwater video footage.
“Did you know that there are over 500 species of shark worldwide?” says the Marine Conservation Society in the caption of a YouTube video sharing a sneak peek of the sharks they saw.
“In Anguilla, a UK Overseas Territory, we've been working hard as part of a collaborative project to find out more about the species that live there so we can safeguard them.”
To confirm which species of sharks are present in the region, and learn more about them, researchers spoke to the local community as well as putting baited video cameras on the seabed and waiting to see which species were caught on film.
“The results? Groundbreaking,” says the charity. “Four shark species were formally recorded in Anguilla for the first time ever, and the vital ecological and social data collected will help shape conservation measures to benefit sharks in Anguilla, and beyond.”
These were the Atlantic six-gill shark, the sandbar shark, the Cuban dogfish, and the smooth-hound shark.
“For many of the people that call Anguilla home, they know those sharks are there, but they may not have used video systems to try and record them in a formal way,” explains Matthew Witt, a conservation biologist at the University of Exeter. “We've used local ecological knowledge and modern scientific techniques to try and pull together more holistic understanding of what species there are.”
Image and video credit: Anguilla Shark Project (a collaboration between Marine Conservation Society, University of Exeter, Department of Natural Resources – Anguilla and Anguilla National Trust)
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