MTU team dissects critically endangered angel shark in effort to protect species

CSI of the Sea: Munster Technological University perform a rare dissection of an angel shark at the Kerry South Campus. It was discovered on a beach in Co Clare by a former student.

A rare species of shark under threat of extinction has gone under the knife at Munster Technological University (MTU) in the hopes that conservationists will be able to learn more about how to protect it.

A team at MTU Kerry's South Campus, in collaboration with the Irish Elasmobranch Group (IEG), Project SIARC (Sharks Inspiring Action and Research in Communities), and the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP), performed a rare dissection of a Squatina squatina specimen, more commonly know as an angel shark or monkfish.

Once considered abundant in the Atlantic Ocean, angel sharks were classified as "critically endangered" and accordingly added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in 2010, a classification re-affirmed in 2017. In 2015, the European Commission also assigned the species the 'critically endangered' status on its European Red List of Marine Fishes.

Angel sharks have broad, flattened bodies with winglike pectoral and pelvic fins near their heads. Adult angel sharks can grow up to 2.5m in length. They are usually found at a depth of between 5m and 150m.

Adult angel sharks can grow up to 2.5m in length.

While humans have caught the angel shark for thousands of years, since the mid-20th century, intense commercial fishing across the angel shark's range has decimated its population.

Due to their sedentary nature, and the fact and that they are 'benthic' creatures — meaning they tend to inhabit the seabed of inshore coastal waters — angel sharks are highly sensitive to bottom trawling and are often caught in gillnets. Such fishing practices also damage the angel sharks' habitats making it more difficult for them to survive.

Angel sharks are now thought to be locally extinct across much of their former distribution area, from Scandinavia to the Canary Islands. In Ireland, their population has dwindled to just a few isolated locations such as Tralee and Galway Bay.

The specimen dissected by the MTU team on Friday was discovered on a beach in Co Clare by a former student of MTU’s Wildlife Biology program, who quickly recognized the importance of the find and raised it with the university.

In carrying out the procedure, the MTU team took a range of body measurements, stomach contents, and various tissue samples from the specimen, all of which will be sent for contaminant, stable isotope, and genetic analysis, to shed help light on the biology and ecology of angel sharks.

“Today’s dissection, while bittersweet in its circumstances, offers researchers a unique opportunity to understand and protect a critically endangered species of marine wildlife that we otherwise would not have had," said lead researcher and lecturer of MTU’s Wildlife Biology course, Louise Overy.

The examination is crucial to allow all sectors to come together to identify the next steps for marine wildlife conservation in Ireland.

Ms Overy added that it was "an honour" to lead a project that is working to secure a future for an endangered species of wildlife.

The Angel Shark project: Ireland, which is being led by Louise Overy of the Wildlife Biology course in MTU Kerry campus, is part of an international effort towards measures to help support the angel sharks across its range with project partners in Wales, Corsica, Greece, Libya, Croatia and the Canary islands.