Angelsharks are a critically endangered species, suffering significant declines as a result of fishing and habitat degradation. They live on the seabed where they are well camouflaged to ambush flatfishes, crustaceans, and molluscs. However, their bottom-dwelling lifestyle makes them vulnerable to being caught in trawl nets, and along with their slow reproduction rate, this puts them at a high risk of extinction.
“Our Dolphin Diet Detective project – funded by the Welsh government through the Nature Networks Fund – uses underwater cameras to reveal the incredible diversity of life on the seabed,” continued Dr Perry. “These findings highlight the urgent need to protect these fragile habitats from damaging activities like bottom trawling.”
The Dolphin Diet Detectives project itself is a groundbreaking piece of work for local marine protection. Funded by an almost quarter-of-a-million-pound grant from the Welsh government and working in partnership with both Aberystwyth and Cardiff universities, the project is extracting DNA from dolphin faecal samples collected from Welsh waters to reveal what dolphins are consuming at various times and locations.
These samples are also being used to generate individual profiles for each dolphin, allowing the team to work out their sex, investigate family relationships, population size, breeding potential, and their movement patterns.
The team will then match these unique profiles with individual bottlenose dolphin photo ID records.
Of this project, Dr Perry said: “Our focus on understanding dolphin diet, population dynamics, and interactions with prey species through innovative research methods will not only inform vital conservation strategies but also actively involve the community. This project is a collaborative endeavour, uniting science and community for a sustainable future.”
At the UN Ocean Conference, the UK government announced a plan to ban bottom trawling from 41 marine protected areas within English waters. It is currently running a consultation on these plans.