Catches of Carcharhinidae Sharks in ICCAT Fisheries

The entire Carcharhinidae shark family has been proposed for listing on CITES Appendix 2. Here we document the catches of these species in ICCAT fisheries. In addition, we do an analysis of correlations in the catches of these species to identify groups of species that tend to be captured together. There are 20 species of the family Carcharhinidae documented in ICCAT’s Task 1 data, with mean catches varying annually between less than one ton to up to 50,000 tons for blue shark (Prionace glauca), which represents the overwhelming majority of the catches. While catches of some of the bycatch species are positively correlated (Carcharhinus leucas with C. limbatus, C. signatus with C. obscurus, and C. obscurus with C. falciformis), catches of main species blue shark are negatively correlated with C. plumbeus. This suggests that higher blue shark catches are not associated with higher bycatch of other Carcharhinidae species proposed for this listing.