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Global-scale genetic identification of hammerhead sharks: Application to assessment of the international fin trade and law enforcement

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Abstract

The future status of sharks is an issue of widespread conservation concern due to declines in many species in the face of high levels of exploitation to satisfy market demands for products, especially fins. Substantial declines in the large-bodied hammerhead sharks, Sphyrna lewini, S. mokarran and S. zygaena, even in regions where some management occurs, indicate that informed conservation measures are warranted for these circumglobally distributed species. Despite the importance of assessing shark catch and trade on a species-specific basis to detect potential overexploitation of individual species, achieving this goal for hammerheads has proven elusive due to difficulties in identification of their products. Here, we present the development and application of a diagnostic, streamlined, five-primer multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay utilizing species-specific primers based on nuclear ribosomal ITS2 for the three hammerhead species throughout their global distribution. Application of this assay to investigations of the fin market confirmed the presence of hammerhead fins in the international trade. A study of the world’s largest fin market in Hong Kong revealed a high concordance between specific Chinese-name trade categories and fins from these three species (“Bai Chun” with S. lewini, “Gui Chun” with S. zygaena and “Gu Pian” with S.␣mokarran), and clear species preferences. This concordance information allows the use of market records for monitoring species-specific trends in trade and exploitation rates. The assay is also proving useful for identification of shark body parts in U.S. fisheries law-enforcement activities. Screening of morphologically identified “ S. lewini” from globally distributed areas using this assay with subsequent whole ITS2 sequencing suggests a cryptic species closely related to S. lewini occurs off the SE USA coast.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Florida Sea Grant College Program with support from the NOAA Office of Sea Grant, Grant No. R/LR-B-54, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, the Eppley Foundation and the Hai Stiftung Foundation. S. Clarke is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science through the National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries, Shimizu, Japan. The assistance of M. Myers, H. Oosthuizen, and the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement in obtaining fin samples, and D. Chapman, M. Henning, J. Magnussen, and J. Nielsen for laboratory assistance is especially acknowledged. We are grateful to L. Beerkircher, K. Duncan, E. Heist, M. Grace, D. Grubbs, C. Lowe, R.A. Martin, L. Natanson, J. Quattro, B. Snelson, J. Tyminski, B. Wetherbee and the NOAA-NMFS-SEFSC Pelagic Observer Program for providing shark tissues.

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Correspondence to Mahmood S. Shivji.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 1 Local alignment of target species-specific primer sequence (bold) with orthologous sequences from the non-target hammerheads. Dots indicate sequence identity to target sequence

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Abercrombie, D.L., Clarke, S.C. & Shivji, M.S. Global-scale genetic identification of hammerhead sharks: Application to assessment of the international fin trade and law enforcement. Conserv Genet 6, 775–788 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-005-9036-2

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