Homepage - DivePoint Maldives
Arzucan Askin - Conservationist. Political Ecologist. Geographer.
The Maldives is one of the most important shark sanctuaries in the Indian Ocean and home to globally significant populations of large predatory sharks, including several critically endangered species.
While they are protected from targeted fishing within the nation’s waters these elasmobranchs continue to face anthropogenic pressure from climate change, pollution and entanglement, interaction with vessels, rising tourism numbers, as well as habitat loss due to land reclamation. Outside of Maldivian waters, and particularly in the Eastern Indian Ocean sharks are actively fished for their fins, meat and oil.
Large research gaps on these issues, as well as the drivers, reproduction and movements of the shark populations inhabiting the Maldives and wider Indian Ocean still remain to be filled.
Homepage - DivePoint Maldives
Arzucan Askin - Conservationist. Political Ecologist. Geographer.