Thresher Shark Project

First-ever internally tagged thresher sharks

Thresher sharks are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, yet there are no protections for the species in Indonesia. Thresher sharks are frequently caught by a handful of local fishers in Alor, Indonesia, driven by the demand for their fins for use in shark fin soup.

In 2018, the Thresher Shark Project Indonesia was initiated with the mission to safeguard Alor Thresher sharks and help local fishers’ transition to more sustainable livelihoods. In 2020, Ocean Blue Tree supported an expedition to Alor. The team of young Indonesian scientists were trained on how to internally insert tags by Indonesian veterinarian and marine conservationist, Jaya Ratha. Two males and seven females were tagged with internal acoustic tags. Both male sharks were mature and two of the female sharks appeared pregnant. Five thresher sharks were tagged with satellite MiniPAT tags, which will provide depth, temperature light and geo-location data for 6 months. A tagging protocol was produced for future tagging projects. Pre-school educational books were provided to two shark fishing communities in Alor, which assist with building relationships with local communities.