Critically Endangered female angelsharks (Squatina squatina) are changing normal mating routines in warming oceans as they prioritise staying cool over visiting breeding grounds when things get too hot.
Critically Endangered female angelsharks (Squatina squatina) are changing normal mating routines in warming oceans as they prioritise staying cool over visiting breeding grounds when things get too hot.
These changes are creating a potential mismatch in the mating behaviours between the sexes of angelshark that could have severe consequences for the future of the species, scientists say.
A team of marine scientists, co-led by researchers at Lancaster University and the Angel Shark Project: Canary Islands (a collaboration between Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and ZSL), used acoustic trackers to discover that prolonged warming of the seas around the Canary Islands is disrupting the reproductive behaviours of female angelsharks.
During a period of unusual and extreme high sea temperatures in 2022, the researchers found female angelsharks were largely absent from the species’ traditional mating grounds within the La Graciosa Marine Reserve – which is located off the coast of Lanzarote and is the largest marine reserve in Spain.
Read more at Lancaster University
Image: Researcher Dr Lucy Mead with acoustic receiver (Credit: Hector Toledo)
