The Whole Tooth

Colin is using ultrasound technology to understand if pregnant silky sharks are using particular coral reef sites in the Red Sea as pupping grounds. He will be tracking them to decipher their movement patterns. Silky sharks are often highest on the list of fished species in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Region, putting them squarely at risk of major declines. That makes knowing where they are pregnant and pupping – and at their most vulnerable – important to understand, and to inform spatial management plans.

Oceanic manta rays are endangered, with reports of up to 1,000 animals landed a year in Sri Lankan fisheries. Only 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away, the world’s third largest oceanic manta ray population aggregates seasonally at Fuvahmulah in the Maldives. Simon wants to understand the degree of connectivity between oceanic mantas in the Maldives and those found in Sri Lankan fisheries surveys. He is documenting the population in the Maldives through photo identification and taking tissue biopsies annually to compare with those from Sri Lanka. By comparing chemical signals in the tissues, he will assess whether the rays are feeding in overlapping ranges.

Aaron is testing how epaulette sharks respond to different temperatures that model future climate scenarios. He wants to understand the genetics that underpin how epaulette sharks might respond. These sharks already have adaptations that allow them to live in extreme environments, as when they are exposed to low oxygen levels and high temperatures at low tide. How do they do this? And how might this make them resilient in the face of change? Aaron believes that this information is vital to predict the success of different sharks and rays in the future.