Combined Local Fisheries Knowledge with Novel Ecology Survey Methods to Identify and Understand Critical Elasmobranch Habitats and Their Threats

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Elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) are an iconic groups of species, however, overfishing and poor management has driven around 40% of NE Atlantic species to be threatened with extinction. MPAs represent an effective conservation strategy, however, to be successful, they must be designed to encompass critical elasmobranch habitats (e.g. hotspots, nursery-grounds). A key step towards this is advancing our understanding of critical elasmobranch habitats and underlying environmental drivers. This project will integrate novel, cutting-edge elasmobranch field survey techniques (drifting baited cameras) with social science (e.g. semi-structured interviews) to identify critical elasmobranch habitats and threat overlap.