It has been just over a year since Nature Trust (Malta) launched the Shark Project. The three-year long project, fully supported by HSBC Cares For the Environment Fund, consists of collecting data on sharks which are landed at the Valletta fish market. This data will give scientists an idea of shark behaviour in the Mediterranean.
Sharks are particularly vulnerable as they are not abundant by nature. Most species also take a long time to mature and produce a very limited number of young. This makes them particularly susceptible to exploitation and other factors which disrupt the delicate ecological balance which shark populations require to prosper.
The project is now well under way. The research, being conducted by Grazielle Cavlan and Titian Schembri, is examining sharks, rays and skates, collectively known as elasmobranchs, caught in Maltese waters.
Data has been collected from over 250 specimens of shark, as well as from numerous pictures of rays. Diagrams have been produced to show whether the species were being caught before they reached maturity. Information regarding lengths and weights as well as on numbers of different species landed is carried out at the fish market before the catch is sold to wholesalers.
The information collected will be used to further knowledge on what is happening in the sea surrounding the Maltese Islands. It will also be used as necessary evidence, if the need for conservation arises.
In the course of this research project, Nature Trust workers have had the privilege to encounter the not so commonly landed larger species of shark, and a species of ray, that have not been seen in a very long time. “The funding from HSBC has made possible, what just a couple of years ago seemed a mere dream, yet now we are in a position to make changes in Malta, and maybe even make a difference in the Mediterranean,” said Nature Trust (Malta) representative Grazielle Cavlan.
More information on this research project can be obtained by contacting Nature Trust (Malta) on 2131 3150 or by sending an email to info@naturetrustmalta.org
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