A current analysis paper on ScienceDirect, co-authored by marine biologist Dr Enrico Gennari and different consultants, has highlighted that sightings of white sharks in typical areas off the Western Cape coast have decreased to fewer than 10 per 12 months.
Dr Gennari has estimated that South Africa could also be ‘dropping between 60 to 80 white sharks’ yearly, which underscores the urgent want for up to date and modernised protecting measures, as reported by IOL.
In 1991, South Africa pioneered a precautionary strategy to white shark conservation, however with current declines in sightings, it’d recommend that current conservation methods might not be ample for the survival of white shark species.
The 1991 ‘White Shark Reasearch Undertaking’ programme, led by marine biologist Chris Fallows and filmmaker Jeffery Ok Kerr, regarded on the behaviour and ecology of nice white sharks round Seal Island in False Bay.
Within the 2024 examine, researchers are arguing for the continuation of a precautionary stance and stressing the significance of prioritising conservation efforts because the variety of white sharks is declining in generally populated areas.
‘We propose a precautionary strategy to be taken in mild of concurrent native declines documented at historic aggregation websites, historic and present ranges of identified removals […], in addition to the discount in sightings of enormous mature people at present being noticed,’ the paper acknowledged.
Dr Gennari’s analysis paper served as a response to a paper printed in October 2023 that had ‘indicated steady inhabitants numbers since 1991’. After a subsequent evaluation by Dr Gennari and his group, gaps within the information have been revealed, which solid doubt on the conclusions drawn within the 2023 paper.
One instance can be that within the 2023 examine, Dr Gennari highlighted inconsistencies within the interpretation of share figures, noting that ‘an 80% lower in a single space doesn’t equate to an 80% improve elsewhere’.
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