Inaccurate and Biased Global Media Coverage Underlies Public Misunderstanding of Shark Conservation Threats and Solutions

The Causes and Consequences of Public Misunderstanding of Shark Conservation

Sharks and their relatives face serious conservation challenges. In addition to more effective implementation of regulations already on the books, they need more and stronger conservation and management policies to prevent the extinction of many species, which would have associated negative ecological and economic consequences. Many members of the public are aware of and concerned by shark conservation challenges, but there is widespread misunderstanding of the threats to sharks and the available policy solutions to address those threats. Such misunderstanding has been spread by both well-intentioned but uninformed shark enthusiasts (i.e., people who care and want to help but have limited or incorrect knowledge of key facts and evidence) and also by extremist activist organizations (i.e., those far outside of mainstream norms). Specifically, many members of the public incorrectly believe that the practice of shark finning (and associated demand for shark fins) is the largest or only threat to sharks. In general, the public is far less familiar with widely used and effective tools such as sustainable fisheries management as a solution to shark conservation threats. Many members of the public incorrectly believe that banning the 1% of the global shark fin trade that is the most sustainable will be a major victory for shark conservation. Many members of the public are heavily influenced by information from uninformed extremists rather than from experts. These misunderstandings result in suboptimal policy outcomes, and even conflict between stakeholder groups that ostensibly share goals or desired outcomes. This perspective summarizes a decade of work attempting to understand the causes and consequences of widespread misunderstanding about shark conservation threats and solutions, mapping each along the Science-Policy Interface. It also proposes solutions focusing on sharing our hard-earned expertise with the interested public in an accessible format.

Analysis of Toxic Metals Found in Shark Fins Collected from a Global Trade Hub

As human activities release increasingly more fossil fuel-derived emissions directly into the atmosphere, terrestrial, aquatic, or marine ecosystems, the biomagnification and bioaccumulation of toxic metals in seafood is an ever more pressing concern. As apex predators, sharks are particularly susceptible to biomagnification and bioaccumulation. The consumption of shark fin is frequent throughout Asia, and their ingestion represents a pathway through which human exposure to potentially unsafe levels of toxic metals can occur. Shark fins processed for sale are difficult, if not impossible to identify to the species level by visual methods alone. Here, we DNA-barcoded 208 dried and processed fins and in doing so, identified fourteen species of shark. Using these identifications, we determined the habitat of the shark that the fin came from and the concentrations of four toxic metals (mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and lead) in all 208 samples via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. We further analyzed these concentrations by habitat type, either coastal or pelagic, and show that toxic metal concentrations vary significantly between species and habitat. Pelagic species have significantly higher concentrations of mercury in comparison to coastal species, whereas coastal species have significantly higher concentrations of arsenic. No significant differences in cadmium or lead concentrations were detected between pelagic or coastal species. Our results indicate that a number of analyzed samples contain toxic metal concentrations above safe human consumption levels.

Newspaper Coverage and Framing of Bats, and Their Impact on Readership Engagement

The media is a valuable pathway for transforming people's attitudes towards conservation issues. Understanding how bats are framed in the media is hence essential for bat conservation, particularly considering the recent fearmongering and misinformation about the risks posed by bats. We reviewed bat-related articles published online no later than 2019 (before the recent COVID19 pandemic), in 15 newspapers from the five most populated countries in Western Europe. We examined the extent to which bats were presented as a threat to human health and the assumed general attitudes towards bats that such articles supported. We quantified press coverage on bat conservation values and evaluated whether the country and political stance had any information bias. Finally, we assessed their terminology and, for the first time, modelled the active response from the readership based on the number of online comments. Out of 1095 articles sampled, 17% focused on bats and diseases, 53% on a range of ecological and conservation topics, and 30% only mention bats anecdotally. While most of the ecological articles did not present bats as a threat (97%), most articles focusing on diseases did so (80%). Ecosystem services were mentioned on very few occasions in both types (< 30%), and references to the economic benefits they provide were meagre (< 4%). Disease-related concepts were recurrent, and those articles that framed bats as a threat were the ones that garnered the highest number of comments. Therefore, we encourage the media to play a more proactive role in reinforcing positive conservation messaging by presenting the myriad ways in which bats contribute to safeguarding human well-being and ecosystem functioning.

Investigating an Unknown Biodiversity: Evidence of Distinct Lineages of the Endemic Chola Guitarfish Pseudobatos percellens Walbaum, 1792 in the Western Atlantic Ocean

Anthropogenic actions have affected marine species for a long time, through overexploitation of natural stocks and habitat degradation, influencing the life strategies of several taxa, especially rays and sharks, which have suffered significant population declines in recent years. Therefore, conservation actions and stock management have become paramount. In this regard, chola guitarfish, Pseudobatos percellens, distributed throughout the Brazilian coast, is often commercially fished by local artisanal fleets or as by-catch in shrimp trawl fisheries. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the genetic diversity of P. percellens throughout the Brazilian coast, using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Genetic analyses employing 3329 SNPs revealed a hidden biodiversity within P. percellens, with at least one lineage occurring in the Northern and Northeastern regions and another distributed in the Southeastern/Southern Brazilian coast, with high genetic differentiation between them. However, the Discriminant Analysis of Principal Components (DAPC) indicated the presence of in fact three lineages distributed in these regions that must still be better investigated. Therefore, to ensure adequate conservation of chola guitarfish biodiversity, populations must be managed separately along the Brazilian coast. Furthermore, the need for a taxonomic review for this group is noted.

From Extermination to Conservation: Historical Records of Shark Presence during the Early and Development Phase of the Greek Fishery

The lack of historical data on shark presence, distribution, and status in the Eastern Mediterranean undermines efforts to manage and protect their populations. An exhaustive review of anecdotal references related to shark presence during the early and development phase of Greek fisheries (1883-1983) was conducted. In the early-20th century (1912), the first sighting of the presence of a dead shark was reported in the Ionian Sea. Later on, the presence of sharks gradually increased up to 1969, with most records being more frequent for the Aegean Sea, whereas the number of sharks being sighted declined leading up to the middle of 1980s. The increase in shark attacks during the mid-20th century led to a calling for culling of sharks in co-operation with the competent authorities promoting the permission to hunt sharks with firearms and offering rewards for killed individuals. A high number of these observations potentially resulted from shark attacks on people, whereas this is not currently evident. This is an indicator of the lower abundance of sharks in modern times and subsequently an alteration in the way that our current modern society is approaching the protection of such vulnerable species.

Ten years of coverage of trophy hunting in UK newspapers

Hunting is an increasingly contentious topic. Trophy hunting, whereby people hunt individual animals with desirable characteristics in order to keep body parts (e.g. horns, heads, hides, antlers) as mementos, is especially contested. Political pressure, often in the form of trophy import bans, is being applied in multiple nations, and campaigns to ban trophy hunting, or trophy imports, attract considerable media attention. However, trophy hunting often has conservation value, acting to protect habitat and provide income for local communities. Assuming that media coverage can influence public and political opinion, negative or simplistic media coverage of trophy hunting has the potential to cause adverse outcomes for conservation and local communities. Here, we analyse coverage of trophy hunting from July 2010 - June 2020 (five years before and five years after the death of Cecil the Lion) in the most popular UK media outlets (624 articles in total), assessing the overall sentiment of each article, and the species and countries covered. Ninety percent of all coverage occurred after the death of Cecil the lion, marking this event as a watershed moment in UK mainstream media depiction of trophy hunting. The overall sentiment of articles was largely against trophy hunting (63.1%), and this was more pronounced in tabloids (84.2%) than broadsheets (42.2%). Pro-trophy hunting articles were very uncommon overall (3.5%). Articles that described the complexity of trophy hunting decreased following Cecil and were most common in pre-Cecil broadsheets (35.7%, dropping to 30.6%) and rarest in post-Cecil tabloids (3.1%). Articles focussed mainly on charismatic but rarely hunted species including lion, elephant and rhino, with commonly hunted species (such as impala or Cape buffalo) only rarely being mentioned. When countries were mentioned, southern African nations predominated, with four nations (Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia and Botswana) being named in 68% of qualifying articles. We conclude that simplistic media depiction of trophy hunting has the potential to cause negative outcomes for conservation through its impact on public perception and political opinion.

A content analysis of 32 years of Shark Week documentaries

Despite evidence of their importance to marine ecosystems, at least 32% of all chondrichthyan species are estimated or assessed as threatened with extinction. In addition to the logistical difficulties of effectively conserving wide-ranging marine species, shark conservation is believed to have been hindered in the past by public perceptions of sharks as dangerous to humans. Shark Week is a high-profile, international programming event that has potentially enormous influence on public perceptions of sharks, shark research, shark researchers, and shark conservation. However, Shark Week has received regular criticism for poor factual accuracy, fearmongering, bias, and inaccurate representations of science and scientists. This research analyzes the content and titles of Shark Week episodes across its entire 32 years of programming to determine if there are trends in species covered, research techniques featured, expert identity, conservation messaging, type of programming, and portrayal of sharks. We analyzed titles from 272 episodes (100%) of Shark Week programming and the content of all available (201; 73.9%) episodes. Our data demonstrate that the majority of episodes are not focused on shark bites, although such shows are common and many Shark Week programs frame sharks around fear, risk, and adrenaline. While criticisms of disproportionate attention to particular charismatic species (e.g. great whites, bull sharks, and tiger sharks) are accurate and supported by data, 79 shark species have been featured briefly at least once. Shark Week's depictions of research and of experts are biased towards a small set of (typically visual and expensive) research methodologies and (mostly white, mostly male) experts, including presentation of many white male non-scientists as scientific experts. While sharks are more often portrayed negatively than positively, limited conservation messaging does appear in 53% of episodes analyzed. Results suggest that as a whole, while Shark Week is likely contributing to the collective public perception of sharks as bad, even relatively small alterations to programming decisions could substantially improve the presentation of sharks and shark science and conservation issues.

Global patterns of illegal marine turtle exploitation

Human exploitation of wildlife for food, medicine, curios, aphrodisiacs, and spiritual artifacts represents a mounting 21st-century conservation challenge. Here, we provide the first global assessment of illegal marine turtle exploitation across multiple spatial scales (i.e., Regional Management Units [RMUs] and countries) by collating data from peer-reviewed studies, grey literature, archived media reports, and online questionnaires of in-country experts spanning the past three decades. Based on available information, we estimate that over 1.1 million marine turtles were exploited between 1990 and 2020 against existing laws prohibiting their use in 65 countries or territories and in 44 of the world's 58 marine turtle RMUs, with over 44,000 turtles exploited annually over the past decade. Exploitation across the 30-year period primarily consisted of green (56%) and hawksbill (39%) turtles when identified by species, with hawksbills (67%) and greens (81%) comprising the majority of turtles exploited in the 1990s and 2000s, respectively, and both species accounting for similar levels of exploitation in the 2010s. Although there were no clear overarching trends in the magnitude or spatial patterns of exploitation across the three decades, there was a 28% decrease in reported exploitation from the 2000s to the 2010s. The 10 RMUs with the highest exploitation in the 2010s included seven green and three hawksbill turtle RMUs, with most reported exploitation occurring in RMUs that typically exhibit a low risk of population decline or loss of genetic diversity. Over the past decade, the number of RMUs with "moderate" or "high" exploitation impact scores decreased. Our assessment suggests that illegal exploitation appears to have declined over the past decade and, with some exceptions, is primarily occurring in large, stable, and genetically diverse marine turtle populations.

Discussion of wildlife trade before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in professional opinion pieces and scientific articles

Wildlife trade is a multi-billion-dollar sector that impacts a wide range of species, and thus is of significant research and conservation interest. Wildlife trade has also become a prominent topic in the public-facing media, where coverage has intensified following the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic due to the potential connection between wildlife trade and the origin of the SARS Cov2 virus. Given the importance of the media in shaping public understanding and discourse of complex topics such as wildlife trade, this could impact the implementation of and public support for policy decisions. In this study, we followed a standardised protocol to extract wildlife trade-related discussion from 285 professional opinion pieces (NGO reports or articles in conservation-themed forums) and 107 scientific articles published in two time periods: "pre-COVID" (June 1-December 31, 2019) and "during-COVID" (January 1-May 31, 2020). We compared opinion pieces and scientific articles across the two time periods and to each other to investigate potential differences in the presentation of wildlife trade and associated speakers. We found a shift in the way that wildlife trade was discussed in professional opinion pieces between the periods, in that the discussion became less specific in terms of defining the legality and purpose of trade, and the animal groups involved in the "during-COVID" period. The generalised framing of wildlife trade in our dataset also coincided with an increased discussion of highly generalised management strategies, such as blanket bans on wildlife trade. We also found that publications included more quotes from researchers in the "during-COVID" period. In both professional opinion pieces and scientific articles, we found that quotations or research were often from speakers whose affiliation region was different to the geographic range of the trade they were speaking about. This highlights the importance of incorporating local knowledge and considering the diversity of speakers and interviewees in both research and the public-facing media about the wildlife trade.

Framing Effects on Attitudes and Intentions Toward Shark Meat Consumption in Lima, Peru

Peru has one of the major shark fisheries in the world. Moreover, shark meat consumption is popular and the main commercially exploited species are considered threatened. Recent studies have found high mislabeling rates and high concentrations of methylmercury in shark meat. The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of different framing messages in persuading fish consumers to avoid shark meat consumption and promote sustainable fish (“popular fish”) consumption. Specifically: To what extent do intrinsic and extrinsic risk messages differ in terms of deterring the intention to eat shark meat and promoting the consumption of popular fish, in the presence or absence of an efficacy message about mislabeling of shark meat? The three message frames were: intrinsic (sharks have mercury), extrinsic (sharks are threatened), and efficacy (sharks are mislabeled). The experiment had a factorial design of 2 × 2 × 2 (present vs. absent for each message). Participants (n = 285), surveyed through an online questionnaire, were assigned to one of eight experimental conditions. Participants then completed a survey regarding their intentions and attitudes toward shark meat and popular fish consumption. Attitudes and intentions toward consuming shark meat were discouraged in all experimental conditions. Moreover, the mislabeling message did not reduce participants' perceived response efficacy (how effective the recommendations for dealing with the problem are), but enhanced it. This study suggests that not all consumers' attitudes about sharks are negative or that a negative attitude does not affect shark consumption in an adverse way. More research targeting different audiences is needed to determine the optimal approach for promoting sustainable seafood that is also healthy for consumers.

Current and future considerations for shark conservation in the Northeast and Eastern Central Pacific Ocean

Sharks are iconic and ecologically important predators found in every ocean. Because of their ecological role as predators, some considered apex predators, and concern over the stability of their populations due to direct and indirect overfishing, there has been an increasing amount of work focussed on shark conservation, and other elasmobranchs such as skates and rays, around the world. Here we discuss many aspects of current shark science and conservation and the path to the future of shark conservation in the Northeastern and Eastern Central Pacific. We explore their roles in ecosystems as keystone species; the conservation measures and laws in place at the international, national, regional and local level; the conservation status of sharks and rays in the region, fisheries for sharks in the Northcentral Pacific specifically those that target juveniles and the implications to shark conservation; a conservation success story: the recovery of Great White Sharks in the Northeast Pacific; public perceptions of sharks and the roles zoos and aquariums play in shark conservation; and the path to the future of shark conservation that requires bold partnerships, local stakeholders and innovative measures.

Online News Media Coverage of Sea Turtles and Their Conservation

The media can be key in informing individuals around topics not easily observable, such as remote environmental issues and wildlife. Sea turtles are enigmatic animals that attract public attention, but they have faced severe population declines worldwide. Assessing how the news reports on sea turtle conservation is critical in evaluating how a concerned layperson may perceive threats affecting these animals and can provide insights on how experts can better engage with the media. We collected online articles about sea turtles from 2003 to 2019, recording the frequency by which various threats were mentioned as hazardous to sea turtles, the types of solutions noted in response to these threats, and common quoted messengers. We found that the media disproportionately reports on the threats of pollution and resource use. Importantly, this may not align with scientific consensus of top conservation concerns for these animals and can be problematic if it leads to a misinformed public.