David S. Shiffman

Stable isotope analysis as a tool for elasmobranch conservation research: a primer for non-specialists

Many elasmobranch species are undergoing population declines on a global scale; however, implementation of effective conservation and management strategies is hindered, to a large extent, by a lack of sufficient data on diet, life historyandbehaviour.Thisworkisaprimerofhowstableisotopeanalysiscanbeusedasacost-effective,relativelysimple tool for examining resource use patterns (e.g. diet, habitat) and generating relevant data in support of science-based elasmobranch conservation and management. Specifically, isotopes can resolve the feeding niches of elasmobranchs, detect ontogenetic trophic shifts and calculate relative diet breadth of different species. Stable isotope analysis can also be employed to investigate the extent of anthropogenic impacts on diet or to infer the source of toxins affecting elasmobranchs. Additionally, this tool can be used to study migration patterns and habitat usage. Depending on the tissueanalysed,thistechniquecanalsobenon-lethalandminimallyinvasive.Thelimitationsofstableisotopeanalysisare discussed, and recommendations for future work are presented. Additional keywords: dietary analysis, ecotoxicology, food web analysis, individual diet specialisation, migration. Received 24 October 2011, accepted 30 April 2012, published online 2 July 2012

How Twitter Literacy Can Benefit Conservation Scientists

While some scientists may view Twitter as a social media fad, we argue that it can be a powerful tool to deliver conservation messages to a wide audience. In 2011 and 2013, the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) Marine Section supported one of this editorial’s co-authors (D.S.) as a communications fellow to share research in conservation science and practice that was presented at SCB’s International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB) and to track the online conversations associated with each meeting. What he found was a worldwide audience thirsty for the knowledge presented and eager to participate in the proceedings. The use of Twitter at the 2011 and 2013 ICCB meetings highlights the important role that social media can play in sharing conservation messages far beyond the confines of the conference halls. There were 1731 conferencerelated posts (i.e., tweets) with the official hashtag #ICCB at the 2011 meeting in Auckland, New Zealand. These tweets were typically short summaries (limited by Twitter to 140 characters) of conference presentations or paraphrased statements of particular note from presenters who were acknowledged by name in the tweet. Tweets and retweets (sharing of a tweet written by another user) with the #ICCB hashtag were made by a minimum of 176 unique tweeters (i.e., Twitter users) from at least 40 countries on 6 continents (Shiffman 2012). While the 2011 conference was attended by more than 1000 scientists from 80 countries, fewer than 10% of the tweeters actually attended the meeting (Shiffman 2012), showing that Twitter facilitated a truly global conversation about the information presented at ICCB 2011. The rate of tweeting at ICCB 2011 was considered high compared with other academic meetings and it was estimated that between 110,000 and 150,000 Twitter users saw at least one conference-related tweet (Aaron Muszalski in Shiffman 2012). Twitter continued to be influential at the 2013 ICCB meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. Over 1500 scientists and conservation practitioners attended the 2013 meeting and the number of unique tweets nearly doubled to 3217, roughly an 85% increase over ICCB 2011. A minimum of 427 unique users tweeted or retweeted at least one #ICCB2013 tweet, again a significant increase from the previous meeting. As with the 2011 meeting, approximately 90% of these users were not present at the meeting, participating instead in online conversations about conservation. Offsite participants could even interact directly with speakers—questions asked on Twitter could be relayed to the presenter and the answers then tweeted back to the Twitter community. At the 2011 ICCB, more than 50 questions from Twitter users on five continents were asked at just one panel session (Shiffman 2012), and “several panelists confided that they got more challenging and more interesting questions from Twitter than from the ICCB attendees in the room” (Shiffman 2012: 260). To further encourage the use of Twitter, presenters at the 2013 ICCB were asked to provide a tweetable abstract of their presentation (i.e., a summary in 140 characters or less). For example, “U.S. wind turbines kill 45,000– 644,000 birds per year; taller turbines kill more birds, and diurnal raptors are disproportionately affected” (S. Loss, see Supporting Information for more examples). These abstract tweets provided the main conclusions or the key take-home message of a presentation in a way that could be easily understood and demonstrated that it is possible to communicate conservation science in a concise but also extremely effective way. However, many conference participants were unsure about what a Twitter abstract was meant to accomplish. The majority of submitted abstract tweets were shortened, slightly rewritten or repeated versions of the talk title. Others included overly technical scientific jargon, used superfluous hashtags, or exceeded the character limit. While any engagement is better than no engagement, these tweets were impractical, duplicative, or less accessible to the public. In contrast, well-crafted tweetable abstracts provided useful sound bites with which to communicate research. We hope future ICCB meetings will continue to encourage submission of tweetable abstracts and provide guidelines for presenters. For example, the most effective Twitter abstracts would start with the author’s surname, include one or two links to hashtag topics or websites, and finish with the conference hashtag. These abstracts can then be posted online in advance of the meeting and at the beginning or conclusion of each individual talk to disseminate the author’s perspective and encourage online discussions.

How Are Scientists Using Social Media in the Workplace

Social media has created networked communication channels that facilitate interactions and allow information to proliferate within professional academic communities as well as in informal social circumstances. A significant contemporary discussion in the field of science communication is how scientists are using (or might use) social media to communicate their research. This includes the role of social media in facilitating the exchange of knowledge internally within and among scientific communities, as well as externally for outreach to engage the public. This study investigates how a surveyed sample of 587 scientists from a variety of academic disciplines, but predominantly the academic life sciences, use social media to communicate internally and externally. Our results demonstrate that while social media usage has yet to be widely adopted, scientists in a variety of disciplines use these platforms to exchange scientific knowledge, generally via either Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or blogs. Despite the low frequency of use, our work evidences that scientists perceive numerous potential advantages to using social media in the workplace. Our data provides a baseline from which to assess future trends in social media use within the science academy.

An Assessment of the Scale, Practices, and Conservation Implications of Florida's Charter Boat–Based Recreational Shark Fishery

ABSTRACTRecent conservation efforts have advocated for SCUBA diving ecotourism as a nonconsumptive alternative use of sharks. Although generally overlooked by conservation advocates, another nonextractive use is catch-and-release fishing, which remains poorly characterized for shark fishing. In this study, we use a combination of website content analysis and surveys of charter boat captains to assess the scale of Floridas charter boat shark fishing industry. We further examine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of charter boat captains whose clients fish for sharks in Florida. We show that recreational charter boat shark fishing occurs throughout the state but is heavily concentrated in the Florida Keys. Shark fishing is often the most expensive trip offered, suggesting that sharks are economically important to the charter boat fishing industry. Floridas charter boat shark fishers who show a strong conservation ethic toward sharks practice catch and release commonly. Our results suggest that althou...

Feeding Ecology of the Sandbar Shark in South Carolina Estuaries Revealed through δ13C and δ15N Stable Isotope Analysis

Abstract Stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen (δ13C and δ15N) from muscle samples were used to examine the feeding ecology of a heavily exploited shark species, the Sandbar Shark Carcharhinus plumbeus. Two hundred and sixty two Sandbar Sharks were sampled in five South Carolina estuaries. There were no significant differences in average δ13C or δ15N signatures between estuaries, between sampling years, or between male and female Sandbar Sharks, suggesting that these variables do not affect diet. A potential ontogenetic diet shift between young-of-year and juvenile Sandbar Sharks in South Carolina, similar to a shift previously described in Virginia and Hawaii populations, is suggested by significant differences in average δ13C and average δ15N signatures between these age-classes. Results confirm that Sandbar Sharks in South Carolina are generalist predators and that juvenile Sandbar Sharks have a wider diet breadth than young-of-year sharks, a pattern common in elasmobranchs. Sandbar Shark diet in South Carolina is similar to that found in previous stomach content analysis studies. This study also demonstrates that nonlethal sampling methods can be applied to sharks to obtain diet and trophic information, including the detection of ontogenetic shifts in diet.

Preferred conservation policies of shark researchers.

There is increasing concern about the conservation status of sharks. However, the presence of numerous different (and potentially mutually exclusive) policies complicates management implementation and public understanding of the process. We distributed an online survey to members of the largest professional shark and ray research societies to assess member knowledge of and attitudes toward different conservation policies. Questions covered society member opinions on conservation and management policies, personal histories of involvement in advocacy and management, and perceptions of the approach of conservation nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to shark conservation. One hundred and two surveys were completed (overall response rate 21%). Respondents considered themselves knowledgeable about and actively involved in conservation and management policy; a majority believed scientists have a responsibility to advocate for conservation (75%), and majorities have sent formal public comments to policymakers (54%) and included policy suggestions in their papers (53%). They believe sustainable shark fisheries are possible, are currently happening today (in a few places), and should be the goal instead of banning fisheries. Respondents were generally less supportive of newer limit-based (i.e., policies that ban exploitation entirely without a species-specific focus) conservation policy tools, such as shark sanctuaries and bans on the sale of shark fins, than of target-based fisheries management tools (i.e., policies that allow for sustainable harvest of species whose populations can withstand it), such as fishing quotas. Respondents were generally supportive of environmental NGO efforts to conserve sharks but raised concerns about some NGOs that they perceived as using incorrect information and focusing on the wrong problems. Our results show there is an ongoing debate in shark conservation and management circles relative to environmental policy on target-based natural resources management tools versus limit-based conservation tools. They also suggest that closer communication between the scientific and environmental NGO communities may be needed to recognize and reconcile differing values and objectives between these groups.

A global perspective on the trophic geography of sharks

Sharks are a diverse group of mobile predators that forage across varied spatial scales and have the potential to influence food web dynamics. The ecological consequences of recent declines in shark biomass may extend across broader geographic ranges if shark taxa display common behavioural traits. By tracking the original site of photosynthetic fixation of carbon atoms that were ultimately assimilated into muscle tissues of 5,394 sharks from 114 species, we identify globally consistent biogeographic traits in trophic interactions between sharks found in different habitats. We show that populations of shelf-dwelling sharks derive a substantial proportion of their carbon from regional pelagic sources, but contain individuals that forage within additional isotopically diverse local food webs, such as those supported by terrestrial plant sources, benthic production and macrophytes. In contrast, oceanic sharks seem to use carbon derived from between 30° and 50° of latitude. Global-scale compilations of stable isotope data combined with biogeochemical modelling generate hypotheses regarding animal behaviours that can be tested with other methodological approaches.Carbon isotopic analysis reveals global biogeographic traits in shark trophic interactions, and sheds light on the diverse foraging behaviour of sharks.

Diversity and Inclusion in Conservation: A Proposal for a Marine Diversity Network

Low diversity among scientists and practitioners is rampant in conservation. Currently, conservation professionals do not reflect the same diversity of perspectives and experiences of the world as the communities who bear the largest burden for implementing—or adverse consequences for failing to implement—conservation action. Acknowledging and describing the problem is important. But policies and programmes must also be put in place to correct it. Here, we highlight some measurable benefits of workforce diversity, and give an overview of some of the barriers to inclusion in marine conservation that help perpetuate low workforce diversity. Importantly, we underscore actions that both individuals and groups can take to alleviate such barriers. In particular, we describe the establishment of an online Marine Diversity Network, which conference participants proposed during a focus group meeting at the 4th International Marine Conservation Congress. The network will serve to bring together people from across the globe, from a variety of backgrounds, and from all career stages, to share knowledge, experiences and ideas, to provide and receive mentorship in marine conservation, and to forge new collaborations. Removing barriers to diverse participation requires coordinated, mindful actions by individuals and organizations. We hope that the proposed network and other actions presented in this paper find widespread support, and that they might serve both as inspiration and guide to other groups concerned with increasing diversity and inclusivity.

Lights, camera, science: The utility and growing popularity of film festivals at scientific meetings

Scientific publications have traditionally been viewed as the fruit of a scientist’s labor. Publishing in the peer-reviewed literature is the gold-standard method for communicating research products to other researchers. Yet today, the greater population of academics and researchers are increasingly recognizing the value of non-traditional scientific research products (Bickford et al. 2012, Ecklund et al. 2012), and certain funding agencies are now asking scientists to list ‘products’ rather than just ‘publications’ on their proposals (Piwowar 2013). But how can scientists gather and learn about these different research products and use this as a

Biology and conservation of elasmobranchs: an introduction to the collection

Elasmobranchs, the taxonomic group comprising sharks, skates and rays, play important roles in society and marine ecology but several species in this subclass are under threat. This collection aims to be an open access hub for articles concerning all areas of elasmobranch biology and conservation. The collection is indefinitely open to further submissions and so will continue to grow as additional articles are added.