Sharks are currently one of the most endangered species affected by a wide group of fishing gear and most often caught as by-catch in fishing. Sharks also have a small number of pups and a long pre-mature period, so their overfishing negatively reflects their population levels. A great number of shark species appear on the IUCN Red List, of which several are critically endangered and protected by international law.
Since there is a lack of scientific data and local ecological knowledge about sharks in Montenegrin waters, the objective of this project was to address these two issues, and also educate fishermen of the Montenegrin sea about sharks. The project resulted in the study ‘’Composition and abundance of shark by-catch in Montenegrin fisheries’’, which provided distribution maps of several assessed shark species and biological and socio-economic related findings.
The project was led by NGO Montenegrin ecological society (MES) with NGO EnvPro as project partner. The donor for this project was the Rufford foundation, with a duration of 1 year.
