Conservation efforts to protect shark species, herein, sharks, skates, and rays, are of paramount importance

This $271,760 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service under the Latin America and Caribbean Regional program (CFDA 15.640) will support the implementation of the National Plan of Action for Sharks, Rays and Chimeras (NPOA-Chondrichthyans) in Guatemala. The primary objectives are to:

1. Generate reliable data to identify catch trends and determine the abundance and population status of shark and ray species in the Pacific coast of Guatemala, in order to support effective conservation and management measures.

2. Promote alternative livelihood activities such as honey production and sustainable tourism in the Las Lisas fishing community to increase resilience, diversify income sources, and reduce fishing pressure.

3. Raise environmental awareness and leadership among fishing communities in the Guatemalan Pacific through education programs focused on marine-coastal resources and commercially valuable shark and ray species.

The award recipient is the Blue World Foundation Inc., a non-profit organization based in Guatemala. The project will be implemented over a 2-year period from October 2023 to September 2025.

The iucn red lists shark specialist group estimates that 24 of all extant sharks and chimeras are threatened with an elevated risk of extinction. The utility of shark products is driving targeted and opportunistic shark fishing. Exposure to fishing mortalities and low intrinsic rates of population growth mean there is a criticalneed for effective shark conservation measures. The lack of information in central america, due to the absence of data collection efforts, is worrisome. Thereare many information gaps in monitoring and data collecting in the region. This absence of information makes itdifficult to implement sound regulations in chondrichthyes fisheries. In guatemala, longline fisheries target thecatch of sharks and rays, but species are also captured incidentally, through other fisheries, which arepermitted both the pacific and caribbean coasts. The chondrichthyes fisheries and trade in guatemala are, at this moment, unregulated and unreported. There is no knowledge about the fishing pressure of the resource, there is no traceability of the products and by-products, also, there is no data on the demand of products, mainly of fins, in domestic markets and the internationaltrade. In 2021, guatemala updated its national plan of action for sharks, rays and chimeras (npoa-chondrichthyans), which was developed as part of the chondrichthyan technical group, an interdisciplinary committee comprised by representatives of the private sector, government, and civil society organizations. The npoa-chondrichthyans outlines a series of activities to be developed and several information gaps that need to be fulfilled therefore, many organizations from different sectors, including ngos, must actively participate on its execution. In this context, the main objective of this project is to contribute to the implementation of the npoa-guatemala, which seek management, and chondrichthyans through research, institutional strengthening, and outreach.therefore, the first objective of this proposal, blue world foundation (funmz in spanish) will continuegenerating reliable data to identify the catch trends of species of chondrichthyans in the pacific coast ofguatemala and thus, determine their abundance and population status.therefore, funmz will contribute to the protection of shark and RAY species of the pacific of guatemala throughlong-term monitoring and proposed management strategies, working jointly with artisanal fishers. As a result, ofthe collection of robust data, funmz expects to continue creating non-detrimental findings (NDF) for the sharksand rays in appendix II of cites and expects to create the first replenishment zone to protect a nursery area ofcritically endangered sphyrna lewini in the pacific of guatemala. The second objective of the proposal will focus on promoting viable economic activities in LAS lisas community, to increase resilience, diversify their sources of income, and reduce fishing pressure. The community of laslisas, through a series of surveys, are inclined to produce honey and to carry out sustainable tourism. Our goalis to improve the quality of livelihoods of one fishing community in the guatemalan pacific by implementing thesetwo alternative livelihoods.finally, our third objective of the proposal seeks to contribute to the construction of an environmentally andsocially responsible society by means of education and environmental leadership, fostering the sustainability ofmarine-coastal resources, especially species of interest, such as commercially valuable sharks and rays, and their associated ecosystems in the guatemalan pacific coast. As a result, we will continue creating awareness to fishing communities (women, men, children and youth) of the guatemalan pacific through environmental education.