Finding endangered rhino rays in the Malacca Strait
New rhino ray species have recently been discovered in the Malacca Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, which suggests greater diversity of these endangered shark-like rays than previously thought. Muhammad is supporting accurate assessments of the status of endangered rhino rays, clarifying their distribution, gathering information about their biology and reproduction and deciphering their genetics. He hopes this will shed light on the true global or regional risk status of the species and inform evidence-based management for species protection and fisheries catch regulations.
Muhammad Irsyad Pishal
I recall the first time my father showed me the BBC’s Blue Planet series when I was small. I was immediately drawn to the sheer beauty and diversity of life within our oceans. As I replayed the documentary throughout my childhood, I knew I wanted to work with marine life, specifically elasmobranchs, in the future. Fast forward almost two decades and I would major in ecology at Universiti Malaya, where I partook in shark and ray studies across Malaysia. The diversity of elasmobranchs amazed me. No one had told me that my own country’s waters housed a diverse...
Uncovering hidden rhino rays in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes
The aim of the project is to supply distributional information, baseline biological as well as genetic data, on poorly known rhino ray species recently recorded or potentially occurring in the Malacca Strait. The information is sourced from local fish landing sites and market surveys.
There is a current lack of data for the focus species of this project. Considering the recent records of these species in this region of high human threat, the collection of data specific to them is urgently needed in order to produce more accurate assessments and, in turn, form the basis for conservation action.
Recent discoveries of new rhino ray species in the Malacca Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, suggest greater diversity of these endangered shark-like rays than was previously thought. Among these species are the eyebrow wedgefish, which was known from scant records in disjointed pockets of the Indo-West Pacific region; and the Ranong guitarfish, which was first described in 2019 and was recently recorded in Malaysia from the strait. Another species, the elusive roughnose wedgefish, has yet to be recorded in Malaysia, although its presence is possible within the strait due to the geographic closeness of past records, such as Singapore and the Lingga archipelago, and the recently submitted Bengkalis-Meranti Candidate Important Shark and Ray Area (cISRA) being an important habitat for the clown wedgefish.
The scarcity of information on these rhino rays greatly undermines assessments that are vital to inform evidence-based conservation and management. On account of this, this project aims to collect samples found at fish landing sites and markets to supply species-specific data. We are interested primarily in the species’ distribution and biology, and aim to explore genetic relationships between potentially unique populations that may be threatened within this region of concentrated human activity.
The project ultimately aims to support accurate assessments of the status of endangered rhino rays and shed light on the true global or regional risk status of these species, which in turn informs evidence-based management for their protection and for fisheries’ catch regulations. The immediate objectives are:
- To clarify the distribution of poorly known rhino ray species via extensive landing site and market surveys across the Malacca Strait.
- To obtain baseline information about their biology and reproduction.
- To assess the genetic diversity and relationships of these species.