Development of a Rapid Management-Risk Assessment Method for Fish Species through its Application to Sharks

The development of an assessment framework for exposure and management risk (M-Risk) builds upon earlier work by Sant et al., 2012 and Oldfield et al., 2012. The work was funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) with the aim of developing a transparent, repeatable risk assessment framework suitable for application to marine taxa, and demonstrating the feasibility of the framework by its application to species of shark with medium to high levels of intrinsic vulnerability. The resulting framework could be used to facilitate efforts to improve management which may include a listing on an Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) or, in fact, preclude the need for such a listing. The rapid M-Risk assessment framework presented in this report was developed iteratively through trial application, review by an Expert Workshop, input from the Project Steering Group and application to 46 shark species. The focus of the work is the development of a meaningful M-Risk assessment method rather than the risk outcomes for individual shark species. The risk ratings attributed by the species assessments conducted as part of this project should be regarded as preliminary pending further consideration by experts in the science and management of those species / stocks. Nevertheless, the authors are confident that the assessment results confirm that the risk assessment framework is sound. Exposure risk, potentially assessed on the basis of scale and value, had been envisaged as an integral component of this project. After further consideration of what an assessment of ‘exposure’ should ideally capture, the information available to inform this and how these factors might be incorporated into the assessment in a meaningful and consistent way, it was concluded that this was beyond the scope of the project. Instead, the project focused on M-Risk. However, the assessment framework does include a weighting to reflect the higher risk of species in international trade and species of high value, as a proxy for some elements of exposure risk. Thus, while the assessment method developed is entitled M-Risk, it includes a component of exposure risk.