Shark and ray reintroductions

DesertRhino150

DesertRhino150

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I was looking around for information about the reintroduction of sharks and rays into the wild, and found this 2016 video of Havets Hus aquarium in Sweden, who have reintroduced sixty captive-bred small-spotted catsharks (a rare species in Swedish waters) into Gullmar Fjord adjacent to the aquarium. The aquarium has four displays for the catshark - one to show visitors the development of the egg-cases, one showing young catsharks and two others housing adults with a variety of other local species.


I also found information about the Dutch Shark Society, which aims to restore a number of sharks and rays to the coastal waters of the Netherlands. Over 350 thornback ray egg-cases have been moved to a special breeding centre from aquaria around the Netherlands and on October 14th 2017 the first five thornback rays were released into the wild. Although thornback rays are increasing in Dutch waters, they are globally Near Threatened, the Dutch population is still quite small and the data gathered will help with the conservation and release of other species such as flapper skates and angelsharks. The details about the release is available here, with more information elsewhere on the website:

http://www.dutchsharksociety.org/first-release-of-bred-thornback-rays/
 
The Dutch reintroduction of thornback rays is continuing now that water temperatures have risen above 10 degrees Celsius. There are now 250 captive-bred rays in the 'Oyster Pits' (the website, with details on visiting the rays in their pre-release pool, is included in the link below), fitted with tags to monitor them post-release. The article reiterates that the thornback ray is a pilot species for reintroducing more threatened species such as the common skate and sea angel (I assume angelshark) to the North Sea.

The link is included below:
They’re back! Come visit our rays!
 
I have just seen news of a reintroduction of 14 catshark pups born at Malta National Aquarium, in association with Sharklab Malta, into Maltese waters.

14 Shark Pups released into the sea - TVM News

Looking at information on the Aquarium's website two species are involved, the nursehound and small-spotted catshark. The egg cases are hatched in the aquarium after being removed from dead sharks in a fish market. In the future, it is intended to tag some of these released shark pups to increase the understanding of sharks in the Mediterranean. The news article above states that, since the project began, 303 shark pups have been released as part of the project.

More information, including a video of a 2015 release of small-spotted catsharks, is included below:
Sharklab Malta - Malta National Aquarium
 
I have seen today that AZA are working on a reintroduction project for zebra sharks in the Raja Ampat archipelago in Indonesia.

Egg-cases laid in American aquariums will be transported to Raja Ampat, where they will then be hatched, reared and monitored in grow-out pens before being tagged and released into dedicated Marine Protected Areas. While the project will initially focus on restoring two populations in Raja Ampat, it could eventually be used to re-establish the species throughout Southeast Asia.

More information can be found in the link below:
A Bold Approach to Zebra Shark Conservation
 
I had forgotten to mention it before, but the June 2024 issue of the BBC Wildlife Magazine has an article about the zebra shark reintroduction programme, which is part of the wider global ReShark project.

One of the most interesting parts is at the very end of the article, where it says that ReShark are now looking at other shark species that could benefit from rewilding projects - the two species mentioned are angelsharks in the Canary Islands and Wales, and nurse sharks in Kenya (I assume this would be the Critically Endangered short-tailed nurse shark, which is bred in captivity).
 
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