Caring for Cameroon’s Sharks, Rays and People
SHOW NOTES
In this episode of World of Sharks, we travel to Cameroon to explore the vital role that small-scale fishing communities can play in understanding and protecting sharks and rays. Our guest is aquatic biologist and ocean conservationist Ghofrane Labyedh, whose work has helped uncover the diversity of sharks and rays found along Cameroon’s coastline and, crucially, put local fishers at the centre of their conservation.
Before we head to Cameroon, we begin by talking about Ghofrane’s most memorable experiences with the ocean in her home country of Tunisia [08.37]. While volunteering with sea turtles on Kuriat Island, she watched a female emerge from the water, carefully choose her nesting site and then lay her eggs. “I felt that really we know nothing about the ocean,” she recalls. It was at that moment that she decided to dedicate her life to understanding and conserving the ocean, and the creatures that live within it.
But Ghofrane’s journey into shark conservation actually started with whales [11.41]. While completing her Master’s degree in marine biology, she became fascinated by sperm whales: “It’s a marine mammal and they can dive up to two thousand meters… I was like so curious to know more.” But she also knew that if she wanted to work with them, she would most likely need to leave Tunisia, as very few whales visited their waters. One Sunday, she searched online for African organisations working on marine mammals and discovered the African Marine Conservation Organization (AMCO). After some persistence, she secured a two-month internship in Cameroon, where part of her role involved analysing citizen-science observations submitted through the SIREN mobile application. The app allows users – primarily fishers – to photograph biodiversity they encounter and send those observations to researchers while at sea. To Ghofrane’s surprise, whales and dolphins were not the main feature. 97% of the records were sharks and rays.
Initially, many of the species in the photographs were completely unfamiliar to her [14.01]. “I felt that it was my bad because I was a beginner! But when I went to Tunisia and I showed those pictures to an expert, advanced expert in Tunisia, and he was unable to identify the species. I was super happy – I was like, my god, I thought it was my bad!” She laughs. At the same time, Ghofrane was also visiting fish markets along the Cameroonian coast and seeing sharks and rays being landed in remarkable numbers, and at every life stage – from juveniles to adults two or three metres long. Yet when she searched for information about what was happening, she found almost nothing: “No articles, no reports, no laws, no management plans. Nothing was existing.” And, despite spending hours at sea searching for the whales she had travelled there to study, she didn’t see a single one. Eventually, the message became impossible to ignore. “I love whales. But if I was in Cameroon for a reason, it was because of sharks and rays,” she says. Ghofrane then embarked on a new path: as the Programme Manager for Sharks and Rays at AMCO.
This meant settling in Cameroon, and getting to know the country and its people [18.08]. Sometimes described as “Africa in miniature”, Cameroon contains an incredible variety of habitats representing the major climates and vegetative types found across the African continent; from desert to rainforest and savannah to rivers, lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. Its waters are home not only to sharks and rays, but five species of sea turtle, several cetacean species and the African manatee. For Ghofrane, what stands out to her just as much as its biodiversity are the people. She remembers being homesick during her first visit, missing her Mom, when an older woman she had never met stopped her in the street and simply hugged her. Similar encounters have happened throughout her time there, particularly with older women who have repeatedly looked out for her. “You feel motherhood,” says Ghofrane. “You really feel motherhood in Cameroon.”
Much of Ghofrane’s early days in Cameroon was spent at the fish markets [22.37]. Initially, she went there to collect scientific data: identifying sharks and rays, measuring them and recording their sex and maturity. But she quickly realised there was a lot more to the story, and soon became immersed in everything happening around the animals. The day begins at around seven in the morning, when fishers return from trips that can last up to two days in very basic wooden canoes, with no shelter or refrigeration. They rest and eat before the buyers arrive, and then the entire beach transforms into a busy stage. Traders negotiate over catches, restaurants search for the tastiest morsels, middlemen buy seafood to transport to other cities and some buyers come specifically looking for sharks and shark fins. “It’s really a theatre scene,” says Ghofrane. Every person has a different role – and every animal has a different story.
Following the catches through the market also introduced Ghofrane to another important part of the fishery: women [24.56]. Many of the market traders are women, and women are also responsible for much of the processing of fish. In Cameroon’s coastal villages where electricity and refrigeration can be unreliable, smoking is a traditional way of preserving meat. Ghofrane was invited by women back into their communities to learn more about the smoking process, which had been refined over generations. Rays were mainly used for smoking, predominantly the Critically Endangered blackchin guitarfish. The fish were gutted, cleaned and then slowly smoked over a low fire for three days, allowing the meat to be kept for up to six months.
Spending time amongst the women of these coastal communities, watching a process rooted in culture and tradition, was a moment of realisation for Ghofrane [27.15]. “I was only looking for scientific data and I found myself with history, with culture, with traditions, with a whole chain that it’s going on around sharks and rays in Cameroon,” she recalls. It completely changed how she thought about conservation. “Conservation is never about the animal itself. Conservation is about people,” she explains. This means that conservationists cannot simply arrive in a community and demand that people stop catching or consuming an animal because it needs protection. Instead, they have to understand everything surrounding that species – who catches it, who processes it, who depends on it and why. “If you really want to protect this animal or this species, you need to know the whole story,” she adds.
Citizen science has also been fundamental to building that bigger picture [31.34]. The SIREN application helped Ghofrane and her colleagues identify six key fish markets and confirmed the presence of more than 40 shark and ray species. Of those, 13 are classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List – considered at the highest risk of extinction. These include the scalloped hammerhead and blackchin guitarfish. Others were Near Threatened, Vulnerable or Endangered. Without an easy-to-use mobile application like SIREN, this vital information would have continued to go unnoticed. “Science cannot exist without citizen science,” emphasises Ghofrane. “We don’t have the same time that fishers can spend next to the sea.”
But involving fishers in conservation required Ghofrane to confront some of her own assumptions [35.30]. She admits that when she first began visiting the markets, she judged the people bringing sharks and rays ashore. “I was seeing fishers as the first problem why sharks and rays are being threatened in the waters of Cameroon.” That changed when she began conducting socioeconomic interviews and listening to fishers describe their lives and their own attitudes towards sharks. One fisherman told her that he had once found a pregnant female hammerhead caught in his net and released her – without anybody asking him to. When Ghofrane asked why, he told her: “She needs to be in the ocean. She’s carrying babies inside of her and those babies, they deserve life.” That conversation helped Ghofrane realise that “fishers are the key for a better future for sharks and rays.”
That fisher ultimately inspired her shark and ray live release programme, launched with support from the Save Our Seas Foundation and National Geographic Society [35.30]. Her idea was to facilitate and empower fishers to lead conservation efforts, and teach others how to recognise and care for sharks and rays that ended up in their nets. First, she asked the fisherman who had released the hammerhead to take on that role and help select other fishers from different communities. “I’m not the one who is like coming and given all the solutions,” she explains. “I’m just the one who is facilitating things.” The idea is that conservation will last much longer if change is led by the people who are impacted by these initiatives and decisions. Ghofrane recognises she won’t be in Cameroon forever, whereas local fishers can pass their knowledge and practices through generations. “And that’s how magic started in our conservation program. Where fishers they took the lead and they started showing conservation ways to their fishing communities, showing them what to do and what not to do for sharks and rays.
And all we can do as scientists is to just facilitate things and raise awareness of those leader fishers that can really implement change in their communities.”
Since 2024, participating fishers have been releasing baby sharks and rays caught in their nets, particularly individuals with little immediate economic value [37.55]. The programme is still continuing even though Ghofrane herself has moved into a new regional role. Local scientists now help coordinate the project, while fishers conduct releases themselves and send photographs and videos as evidence. For Ghofrane, this is what sustainable conservation should look like: not scientists arriving with all the answers, but local people becoming the people who lead change in their own communities.
Ghofrane is now applying that collaborative approach on a much larger scale [41.14]. In January 2026, she became lead coordinator of the West and Central Africa Elasmobranch Coalition, expanding her focus from Cameroon to 14 countries across the region. The coalition aims to improve collaboration, establish more consistent methods for collecting shark and ray data, bring together existing research, strengthen implementation of international protections such as CITES and CMS, and identify critical habitats. The scale initially felt daunting, but Ghofrane is optimistic because the work is inherently collaborative. “We are not alone,” she says. “We are together and we can go together where we want to go and we can achieve together what we want to achieve.”
Another important part of Ghofrane’s work is storytelling [45.35]. At her first scientific conference in 2023, she packed her presentation with statistics, graphs, maps and figures because she felt she needed to demonstrate how scientific her work was. Afterwards, she was disappointed. She wondered whether anyone would actually remember what she had said. So at her next presentation, she tried something completely different: she removed the graphs and statistics and told stories instead, using photographs and offering QR codes for anyone who wanted to explore the underlying science. And her experience was very different: people connected emotionally with the work, and told her so. Since then, Ghofrane made the decision to incorporate storytelling into her research.
But being a good storyteller begins with being a good listener [47.59]. Before telling stories about Cameroon, Ghofrane spent years listening to fishers and coastal communities. “Emotions are so, so important,” she says, “and when we put emotions in our science and in our conservation as well, it will be something more than impactful…it will be something that people will always carry and always remember.
And that’s how you can protect the species. Because people are dependent on the species. Heritage of a whole country is dependent on this species…so you need to know the whole story.”
ABOUT OUR GUEST
GHOFRANE LABYEDH
Ghofrane is an aquatic biologist and ocean conservationist with a master’s degree in aquatic biodiversity and ecosystems. Her passion for marine life began on the shores of Monastir, Tunisia, where she volunteered to monitor sea turtles, an experience that contributed to the establishment of the Kuriat Islands Marine Protected Area and inspired her lifelong dedication to ocean conservation.
From 2019 to 2024, she worked with the African Marine Conservation Organisation (AMCO) in Cameroon, focusing on the conservation of sharks and rays. In 2022, she became Shark and Ray Program Manager, leading fish market surveys, socio-economic studies with fishing communities, volunteer training, and policy advocacy. Ghofrane translates scientific research into reports and policy briefs to guide decision-making and secure funding for conservation initiatives.
Since 2023, she has helped create a network of researchers and organizations working on sharks and rays across West and Central Africa with the Manta Trust, bridging gaps in research, skills, and policy across the region. In 2024, Ghofrane also became a National Geographic Explorer, launching a live-release program that empowers fishers as active conservation partners.
In 2025, she became a fellow of both the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) and the Nature, Environment, Wildlife Filmmaking (NEWF) program, working to combine science and storytelling to inspire action. This year (2026), she will also begin a new role as Regional Vice-Chair (Africa) for the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Shark Specialist Group (SSG) for the 2025–2029 quadrennium, and as Lead Coordinator of the West & Central Africa Elasmobranch Coalition at the Manta Trust. In these roles, Ghofrane works to enhance research, policy, collaboration, and storytelling to support shark and ray conservation efforts across West and Central Africa.
With over a decade of experience in marine conservation, Ghofrane’s vision is to integrate fishers’ knowledge with scientific research and strengthen regional collaboration to achieve sustainable ocean conservation along Africa’s coasts.
Labyedh, G., Laglbauer, B., Fogwan, C., Biankeu, C., Mengoue, G., Stevens, G.M., Sanchez, L. and Kamla, A.T., 2026. Shining a light on Cameroon’s elasmobranch fisheries: insights from citizen science and market surveys highlight a conservation priority. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 109(1), p.20.
She is also on Instagram: @Motherfish08
