Work is under way by the team at the DoE and Marine Conservation International (MCI) monitoring the shark, snapper and grouper populations around the Cayman Islands. The project is funded largely by a Darwin Plus award and will be supporting Cayman’s commitment to protecting and restoring key species and habitats.

While it is still early days, the number of sharks found has been lower than expected in comparison to the numbers achieved on surveys of only a few years ago. This is potentially concerning as sharks have a key role to play in keeping reefs healthy and strong fish numbers.“For example sharks play a key role in keeping secondary predator numbers in line so that the reef fish such as parrot fish can continue to keep our reefs healthy by scraping off the algae” said MCI’s Dr. Mauvis Gore.

Sharks also are valuable to the tourist economy. The DoE – MCI team previously completed a study on the economic value of sharks to the Cayman economy. The value was based on what tourists were willing to pay to have sharks on the reefs. This took in the value tourists attributed to healthy shark populations as part of a healthy marine environment, not just how much tourists would pay to see sharks. The value of having sharks on the reef is about US $ 54 million per year. By contrast, catching and killing sharks was worth only US $ 1.6 million per year. Neighbouring Bahamas earn about US $ 78 million per year from sharks on their reefs, with the value of a single live shark at US $ 35,000.

“Of course, once a shark is dead, its value is used up” noted DoE Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie, “whereas a live shark continues to play a valuable role on the reef and provides economic worth to our economy year after year after year”.

The project is also contacting fishermen and anglers for assistance with the populations of lagoon and mutton snapper, and tiger grouper. The team are working on the population numbers, the food these fish are living on and where they reproduce.

“We would like to ask fishermen and anglers that catch one of these snappers or grouper for fresh samples. That is the guts and gonads, a fin and if possible the back of the head for the ear bones to age the fish” requested DoE’s Deputy Director Timothy Austin. “If you give us a call, 949-8469, we’ll arrange to pick them up”.

The researchers will be tagging sharks as well as mutton and lagoon snapper and tiger grouper. Some will have a visible tag – an orange tag on the dorsal fin of the sharks – and some will have an electronic tag – a slim black cylinder inserted in to the belly cavity – that can be followed using the array of hydrophones the DoE has deployed around the Cayman Islands for tracking tagged marine life. Anyone seeing or catching a fish with any sort of tag is asked to contact the Department of Environment. (For fish caught with the cylindrical internal tag there is a reward for the return of the tag and letting the researchers take a sample). The Researchers can be
contacted by telephone 949 8469 or by email to [email protected].

For more information about this research and reward programme, visit www.doe.ky.

Darwin Plus: www.gov.uk/government/groups/the-darwin-initiative

The Darwin Initiative is a UK government grants scheme that helps to protect biodiversity and the natural environment in developing countries and UK Overseas Territories (OTs). Darwin-funded projects usually aim to help preserve biodiversity and the local community that lives alongside it. The Darwin Plus is awarded for work in the Overseas Territories.

The Cayman Islands Department of Environment: www.doe.ky