Highly endangered but still kicking: researchers from Israel have found the breeding ground of a rare sea creature, a kind of ray once thought to be a shark, called the guitarfish. The long-term study at the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa found that the coast between Ma’agan Michael and Dor Beach serves as a nursery ground for the blackchin guitarfish and the scientists are working to get it declared a nature reserve.
Dor Beach is a popular place for people from all over Israel to swim. It is free to enter but you need a car to get there.
Blackchin guitarfish is a cartilaginous fish in danger of extinction.
The researchers found that concentrations of juvenile guitarfish develop from the end of August through early November.
“A nursery ground is a natural area where animals, particularly marine species, gather during the early stages of life. A nursery ground is defined as an area that enhances the animals’ chances of survival during the sensitive early stage of life by providing optimum conditions in terms of food, protection against predators, and shelter from extreme environmental conditions. Following the study findings, we hope this area will be declared a nature reserve when the young guitarfish gather here so they can be protected,” says PhD student Eynav Cohen, one of the study’s authors.
The guitarfish, also referred to as shovelnose rays, are a family, Rhinobatidae, of rays. The guitarfish are known for an elongated body with a flattened head and trunk and small, ray-like wings. The combined range of the various species is tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate waters worldwide.
Guitarfish populations are in constant decline around the world, and in the Mediterranean Sea in particular, mainly as a result of net fishing. These fish are now classed at the highest level of extinction risk for vertebrates.
Related: Over Fishing in the Mediterranean Sea
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the blackchin guitarfish is in critical danger of extinction. The researchers add that there is a lack of biological and ecological knowledge about guitarfish, including population sizes along Israel’s coast and worldwide. Most of the existing knowledge comes from commercial fishing data.
This study was the first time a monitoring program for guitarfish in Israel was established.
The researchers hope that their study’s findings, confirming that the area serves as a nursery ground for the blackchin guitarfish, will motivate national to regional regulatory bodies to declare the area as a marine nature reserve when the guitarfish are present.
So little is known about the Mediterranean Sea and its biodiversity. Since the establishment of the Suez Canal and the linking of the Med Sea to the Red Sea biodiversity has become under threat due to invasive species such as the jellyfish taking over. Egypt earns almost $10 Billion USD a year for the canal which allows ships to bypass Africa on their way to Europe but Egypt has denied its culpability in the biodiversity invasion.
