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This forum is the second of a themed series planned by the Angling Trust in 2021 aimed at recreational sea anglers (RSA’s) relating to Sharks. This is your chance to listen to and engage with Dr Georgia Jones and Dr Bryce D. Stewart. As Marine Biologists keen to work with RSA’s, Georgia and Bryce will outline UK shark science with a spotlight on porbeagle sharks.

Healthy shark populations are vital for maintaining healthy ocean ecosystems but the majority of UK sharks are regionally classed as either Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List for, largely due to the impact of commercial fisheries. Monitoring the numbers and distribution of UK sharks is critical if they are to be managed effectively. RSA’s are valuable stakeholders in UK shark fisheries and should be included in shark monitoring and management.

Through a collaboration between the Universities of Bournemouth and York and the Angling Trust, they have produced a survey for UK recreational shark anglers. The aims of the survey are to describe the UK recreational shark fishery, get input from RSA’s on their views of the current status of UK sharks, identify current shark handling practices and understand angler perceptions of and participation in shark research schemes.

Georgia and Bryce want to work with anglers, to understand the fish that we all want to see thrive. They will present the results of the survey back to anglers and make the data available to all. They will also be offering best-practice handling workshops to maximise the sustainability of the fishery and help ensure tight lines for the years to come. We are aiming to cover this work in future forums.

Background to our presenters:

Dr Georgia Jones, University of Bournemouth says,

‘My relationship with sharks started when I was 5 years old and my dad let me watch Jaws…fear soon turned to fascination though and this was accelerated when I unexpectedly snorkelled into my first shark in the wild, a little black tip reef shark. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to work with wildlife and chose to study Zoology for my Undergraduate degree, followed up with a Master’s in Wildlife Management and Conservation. I started working with sharks in 2010 when I was hired as the project coordinator for the Marine Conservation Society, Seychelles. I was responsible for acoustically tagging (via small abdominal surgery) a range of species including bull, tiger, and lemon sharks as part of a project to understand threatened marine life use of a marine protected area. I also worked on their long-term whale shark monitoring project. In 2014 I went on to complete a PhD on great white shark ecology in South Africa and during my PhD, I set up a Dorset-based charity to educate the public and conduct research projects on UK shark species. I am now a Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University (though my post is actually 90% research!) and my main research focus is on UK shark ecology, and especially porbeagles. I am dedicated to working with the recreational shark angling community to better understand our sharks’.

Dr Bryce Stewart, University of York:

‘Bryce is an Australian marine ecologist who was brought up in Papua New Guinea and has loved everything to do with the sea for as long as he can remember. He became a keen angler at a very young age, but his abilities seem to have gone downhill since he left New Guinea! He did an undergraduate degree in Zoology at the University of Melbourne, before moving up to Queensland to study predatory coral reef fish for his PhD at James Cook University. He moved to the UK in 1999 and had spells at the University of Liverpool and Marine Conservation Society before settling at the University of York in 2007. The central goal of his research has been to better understand the factors regulating marine populations and ecosystems, so as to ensure their conservation and sustainable utilisation. Since 2016 he has been particularly involved with assessing implications of Brexit on UK fisheries and the marine environment. He is delighted to now be working with other recreational anglers, who are key stakeholders that have so much knowledge to offer to science and conservation’.

PLEASE NOTE -

We will be running a Question and Answer session during the forum. If you have any questions you would like to pose to our speakers ahead of the event (for them to answer on the night) please submit these to me by 04/03/2021. You can contact me about this, or anything else to do with the forum at:

marinecoordinator@anglingtrust.net