Research goals of special concern for Carcharhinus leucas (Carcharhiniformes: Carcharhinidae) in Latin America – biological, distributional, and conservation priorities

Abstract

The bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) is a coastal predator that relies on low salinity habitats (estuaries, rivers, lakes) for reproduction. Identifying inshore nurseries and parturition areas is critical to its conservation. Resulting from both coastal development and overfishing across its range, these habitats have increasingly experienced human impacts, resulting in declining populations. Carcharhinus leucas also shows data deficiencies across much of its range, including Latin America. In this region, several freshwaters historically reported as nurseries have been overfished and are now understudied. In this context, our study aims to identify and highlight research deficits for C. leucas in Latin America. To achieve this goal, we sought the expertise of 110 scientists from Latin America (34% response rate) and conducted a literature review to identify the most urgent research questions pertaining to C. leucas. The interviewed scientists highlighted many different research needs, with fisheries impacts, habitat use, and distribution being the most important. We identified seven sites of special importance for the conservation of C. leucas in Latin America, with four of these confirmed by Latin American scientists. This study not only outlines scientific research goals for C. leucas but provides investigation methods to gather essential data to address data deficiencies.