Centro Universitario Regional del Este, Universidad de la República (CURE, UdelaR), Rocha, Uruguay Uruguay
Prof. Asistente Departamento de Modelización Estadística de Datos e Inteligencia Artificial (MEDIA)
Departamento de Biología Marina & Núcleo Milenio “Ecología y manejo sustentable de islas oceánicas” (ESMOI), Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Universidad Católica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile. Chile
Oceana-Chile, Santiago, Chile Chile
Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina Argentina
First in situ record of the deep-sea shark Hexanchus griseus (Chondrichthyes: Hexanchidae) off Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile), and management implications
Rodolfo Vögler, Javier Sellanes, Matthias Gorny, Andrés C. Milessi
The conservation of threatened sharks requires defining the occurrence and distribution range of the species and key habitats for their survival. During surveys of mesophotic and deeper benthic habitats (50 to 340 m depth) off Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile, southeastern Pacific), using a remotely operated vehicle, a male bluntnose sixgill shark, Hexanchus griseus (Hexanchidae), was sighted. The estimated total length of this immature specimen was ~146 cm. This is the first documented record of the species off Rapa Nui. The in situ evidence of this threatened deep-water shark highlights the urgency to build management strategies to protect vulnerable apex predators of coastal and deep-waters ecosystems of the recently created Rapa Nui Marine Protected Area for Multiple Uses, above all from the effects of fisheries and other human activities (e.g. bycatch, marine litter).