Chris Mull

The Pygmy Shark (Euprotomicrus bispinatus), the world’s second smallest shark species and one of the species with a high overlap with proposed deep sea mining. Credit: Blue Planet Archive / Masa Ushioda.

🚨 NEW PUBLICATION 🚨

Today in @currentbiology.bsky.social, we found that 30 species of #sharks, #rays, and #chimaeras overlap with proposed #deepseamining in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction #ABNJ - over 60% are already #threatened with #extinction 🦈

📸 Blue Planet Archive / Masa Ushioda

Depending on the mining type there are varying degrees of depth overlap between impacts and species depth ranges. We highlight four recommendations including limiting discharge plumes to below 2,000 meters to limit overlap with sharks and rays.
@seaprinceaaron.bsky.social @nickdulvy.bsky.social

Figure 1: highlighting various pathways through which mining can impact sharks, rays, and chimaeras including collector impact and plumes, and discharge plumes.

Figure 2: The diversity of sharks, rays, and chimaeras impacted by deep sea mining operations. Nearly 2/3 of these species are already at an elevated risk of extinction.

New paper led by @seaprinceaaron.bsky.social in @currentbiology.bsky.social looking at the threats deep sea mining poses for sharks, rays, and chimaeras. We found 30 species are threatened via various pathways including collector impact and plumes at depth and pelagic discharge plumes.

I don't think many people realize that Canadian companies own something like 75% of the mines in the world.

Apply for the Scripps Postdoctoral Fellowship! I'm looking to support a strong candidate in fish physiology and/or biomechanics. Deadline: Oct 9, 2025. Eligibility: PhD by Nov 30, 2026 with ≤3 years postdoc experience. 2 years, $74K salary, $6K research allowance 👉 apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF04348 🧪 🐟

YouTube video by Beyond Jaws Podcast Shark Science: How International Trade Fuels Unsustainable Shark and Ray Fisheries

Had a great time chatting to the Beyond Jaws podcast about shark and ray biodiversity and threats. Thanks for having me!

youtu.be/9P1xnUmjJR0?...

Despite lots of work already being done, these aspects (movement, trophic interactions, and demographics) are often studied in isolation. But they are each a piece of the puzzle. Often times there are taxonomic biases in research. This doesn't even cover the rays! @natklinard.bsky.social

Sharks and rays can play many ecological roles (predators, prey, vectors, etc). The functional roles of individuals scale up depending on the ecological context. And there are many questions to consider @natklinard.bsky.social @johnwayne5.bsky.social

Defining ecological roles of sharks on coral reefs Sharks have often been perceived to play a critical role in the dynamics of coral reef ecosystems globally. Yet, there is relatively little evidence to support this idea across all but a limited set ...

New Paper led by @natklinard.bsky.social We lay out a framework for assessing the ecological roles of reef sharks (but widely applicable) incorporating movement, trophic/community, and life history/population dynamics. w/@johnwayne5.bsky.social and A MacNeil
doi.org/10.1111%2Fbr...

Imputation of Fisheries Reference Points for Endangered Data‐Poor Fishes, With Application to Rhino Rays For data-limited fish species, sustainable management frequently relies on biological metrics that are derived from life-history trait data, as opposed to high-resolution time series of catch and abu....

Hot off the press in Fish and Fisheries, led by @cathorswill.bsky.social. Life history and management metric imputation of Rhino Rays. Imputed traits/metrics reduce uncertainty compared to using surrogate values from congeners. Important for highly threatened spp #AES25

doi.org/10.1111/faf....

Professional fishers’ knowledge informs distribution and interaction dynamics of Sawfish and River Sharks in coastal fishing grounds of the Northern Territory, Australia - Maritime Studies Through their time at sea professional fishers possess and obtain invaluable knowledge and insights into the behaviour, distribution, and abundance of both target and non-target species. Their observa...

New #sharkscience led by Vinay Udyawer
Professional fishers’ knowledge informs distribution and interaction dynamics of Sawfish and River Sharks in coastal fishing grounds...

Amazing insights from fisher interviews about their changing interactions through time
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Applications for the SOSF Small Grant are open!
We call on early-career scientists with projects focused on sharks, rays, skates, sawfishes & chimaeras to apply.
This grant is designed to fund short-term projects (12-18 months) & small projects (average US$5,000).
To apply: grants.saveourseas.com

Right there with ya bud!

A portrait of Kendra Chan standing on the coast, laughing as the wind blows her hair.

We are THISCLOSE to funding the Kendra Chan Bodega Marine Lab challenge, which funds life-changing research experiences for undergraduate students, no matter their financial situation, and honors Kendra's memory. Just 8 more gifts of any size before 5pm today will unlock $15,000: buff.ly/sVGlS6a

One of life's little pleasures!

Wait Charlie is an author on both papers. How does that work?😂 I think we need him to pick a side...

And the question should determine the method you are using! Whenever a student asks for analytical advice my first prompt is "what is your question?" Otherwise I cannot assess if your method are appropriate! from our SFU E2O statsbeerz days

This is a fantastic paper and has one of the best closing paragraphs of all time!

Checks out!

Scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) IUCN Critically Endangered © Masayuki Agawa_Ocean Image Bank

New #GlobalSharkTrends study published in @science.org reveals #overfishing has more than halved shark & ray populations over the past 50-years causing widespread erosion of ecological function and exceptionally high extinction risk
👉Full article bit.ly/GlobalSharkTrends
🧵1/20

Improper data practices erode the quality of global ecological databases and impede the progress of ecological research The scientific community has entered an era of big data. However, with big data comes big responsibilities, and best practices for how data are contributed to databases have not kept pace with the collection, aggregation, and analysis of big data. Here, we rigorously assess the quantity of data for specific leaf area (SLA) available within the largest and most frequently used global plant trait database, the TRY Plant Trait Database, exploring how much of the data were applicable (i.e., original, representative, logical, and comparable) and traceable (i.e., published, cited, and consistent). Over three-quarters of the SLA data in TRY either lacked applicability or traceability, leaving only 22.9% of the original data usable compared with the 64.9% typically deemed usable by standard data cleaning protocols. The remaining usable data differed markedly from the original for many species, which led to altered interpretation of ecological analyses. Though the data we consider here make up only 4.5% of SLA data within TRY, similar issues of applicability and traceability likely apply to SLA data for other species as well as other commonly measured, uploaded, and downloaded plant traits. We end with suggested steps forward for global ecological databases, including suggestions for both uploaders to and curators of databases with the hope that, through addressing the issues raised here, we can increase data quality and integrity within the ecological community.

1/ Important read for anyone using, contributing, or building large databases by aggregating data sources. Discusses issues with data quality, duplication, credit attribution, etc, and includes recommendations for improvement

doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... #ecopubs

Unprecedented International Effort to Prevent Shark Finning Blocked by Japan & China - Shark League for the Atlantic and Mediterranean ICCAT meeting ends in dramatic defeat of proposal to end at-sea fin removal while other shark safeguards advance Limassol, Cyprus. November 18, 2024. This year’s meeting of the International Commissio...

ICCAT again does NOT implement best practice "Fins Naturally Attached" rules thanks to just 2 of its members blocking widely supported efforts to get the measure implemented. Some other shark measures were adopted. Details in the link
www.sharkleague.org/2024/11/18/u...
#sharkconservation #shark