MarAlliance, Ancon, Panama City, Panama.
Hatherley Laboratories, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2022 Sep 30;17(9):e0275511. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275511. eCollection 2022.
The Red Sea is particularly biodiverse, hosting high levels of endemism and numerous populations whose extinction risk is heightened by their relative isolation. Elasmobranchs and sea turtles have likely suffered recent declines in this region, although data on their distribution and biology are severely lacking, especially on the eastern side of the basin in Saudi Arabian waters. Here, we present sightings of elasmobranchs and sea turtles across the north-eastern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba collected through a combination of survey methods. Over 455 survey hours, we recorded 407 sightings belonging to 26 elasmobranch species and two sea turtle species, more than 75% of which are of conservation concern. We identified 4 species of rays and 9 species of sharks not previously recorded in Saudi Arabia and report a range extension for the pink whipray (Himantura fai) and the round ribbontail ray (Taeniurops meyeni) into the Gulf of Aqaba. High density of sightings of conservation significance, including green and hawksbill sea turtles and halavi guitarfish were recorded in bay systems along the eastern Gulf of Aqaba and the Saudi Arabian coastline bordering the north-eastern Red Sea, and many carcharhinid species were encountered at offshore seamounts in the region. Our findings provide new insights into the distribution patterns of megafaunal assemblages over smaller spatial scales in the region, and facilitate future research and conservation efforts, amidst ongoing, large-scale coastal developments in the north-eastern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba.
红海的生物多样性特别丰富，拥有高度的特有性和许多种群，由于它们相对孤立，其灭绝风险加剧。在该地区，鲨鱼和海龟的数量可能最近有所减少，尽管有关它们的分布和生物学的数据严重缺乏，特别是在沙特阿拉伯水域的盆东侧。在这里，我们通过结合调查方法，展示了东北红海和亚喀巴湾各地的鲨鱼和海龟的目击情况。在超过 455 个调查小时中，我们记录了 407 次目击事件，涉及 26 种鲨鱼和两种海龟，其中超过 75％的鲨鱼和海龟都受到保护关注。我们还确定了 4 种鳐鱼和 9 种以前在沙特阿拉伯未被记录的鲨鱼，并且报告了粉红鞭尾魟（Himantura fai）和圆尾魟（Taeniurops meyeni）进入亚喀巴湾的范围延伸。在沿东亚喀巴湾和与东北红海接壤的沙特阿拉伯海岸线的海湾系统中，记录到了具有保护意义的高密集度的目击事件，包括绿海龟和玳瑁以及哈瓦那魟，而在该地区的近海海山也遇到了许多长尾鲨。我们的发现为该地区较小空间尺度上大型动物群的分布模式提供了新的见解，并促进了未来的研究和保护工作，因为东北红海和亚喀巴湾正在进行大规模的沿海开发。
