Which marine biology stories made waves in 2024?

With the effects of climate change ramping up around the world and an increasing number of species being added to the endangered list, which marine biology have been making waves? Will Tingle has been speaking with marine science communicator, and host of the Out of Our Bubble podcast, Liberty Denman…

Liberty - Well, it's so hard to pick one thing in a space that moves so quickly and yet so slowly on a political front. So I'm actually not just going to pick one thing. I'm going to pick two, give you a bit of good news, and a bit of bad news. I say that the bad isn't even that bad news. It's just interesting. The IUCN have actually released an updated report on the global status of elasmobranchs, your sharks, ray, chimeras, which followed on from their last one in 2005. So it's been a nice 20 year waiting period of excitement to see what's changed. And then a bit of really good news is actually the Azores have declared the largest marine protected area in the North Atlantic. It will be Europe's most extensive MPA with their network covering 287,000 square kilometres, which has to be good news I think.

Will - In terms of the sharks IUCN thing, as you said, that seems an extraordinarily long time in order to get a report out. Why has it taken two and a half decades for us to get meaningful information?

Liberty - I think when you are covering off about 500 species of sharks, then you've got to consider all your rays as well. That's a lot of information to cover off a lot of species all around the world. It's a big task. So I feel that's always going to take a long period of time. And also when you're assessing change, when things politically take a long time to change. And also just to understand how populations are changing. Again, with long-lived species, these things take a long time to occur. So I think when you are mapping that out, it takes a really long time for these things to be assessed properly. So that's probably why it's taken 20 years or so. But it does have some good news, and some bad news.

Will - I tend to eat my veggies first. So what's the bad news?

Liberty - So unfortunately this group of species, the elasmobrachs, are of the most threatened vertebrates on the planet. So about a third of elasmobranchs are in a threatened or worse status on the IUCN red list of endangered species. Primarily due to overfishing, which is really evident in the reported demand for shark meat that has actually increased almost twofold. As well as also seeing a diversification in products that we're seeing. So there's also gill plates, liver oil skins on top of the sort of the standard meat and fins, if you will. And that can be quite an alarming thing I think to look at. Obviously it's a multifaceted issue. It's also not just overfishing. You've got you climate change, your pollution, all of these other elements to it. But the report does also outline some huge strides where we are making improvements, especially since 2005. So what we are seeing is a huge increase in information and also a diversity of researchers that is coming from. So to see that starting to shift is really, really exciting. And also some of the big improvements. So that knowledge base is across places in Asia, Africa, central America, the Caribbean, where there are these really, really exciting populations in such a huge diverse range of species that we're seeing there. So to be able to see that increase in focus on collaboration, also collaboration with industry to overcome these issues, working with everything from small scale fishers up to that kind of large scale offshore work is really exciting to see. And those things are outlined in there. So it is not all bad, it is mixed reviews, I think.

Will - And the good news sounds like it continues with this MPA in the Azores.

Liberty - It absolutely does. Some of you may be aware of the 30 by 30 target that's trying to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030. The Azorian Sea actually covers about 55% of the Portuguese economic exclusive zone, and that makes up about 15% of the total EU waters. So the regional government moving to protect this is an incredible feat. And what I think we're really looking for now is that kind of total protection, really limiting extractive activities, whether that is mining, fishing, even the recreational side of things as well, anything that could impact the biodiversity there. So what will now be critical is the kind of how that is managed and ensuring community buy-in from all of the different communities that are around The Azores. But it sounds like something that has been incredibly successful so far with the network that already has been existing historically. And to see that shifting is really positive to actually see some targets being hit because I think it can be quite depressing sometimes to look at all of the things which we've spoken about but not necessarily delivered on. So to see them actually delivering on this is really, really exciting.