Project 3: Research Process and Annotated Bibliography

Project 3: Research Process and Annotated Bibliography

William T. Dominici

Appalachian State University

Rhetoric & Composition 2001

Professor Bryant

April 14 2021

Abstract
Project 3: Research Process and Annotated Bibliography

This research paper will be discussing the detrimental impact humans have had on shark

populations all over the world. The topics discussed will present scientific and scholarly data to

support these claims. We can see that there has been a dramatic decrease in shark populations

and these sources hope to explain why. We will also take a look at some articles discussing the

possible remedies to this issue and what legislators need to be taking action on. This issue is

currently affecting our marine life ecosystems and is becoming more and more important for

people to pay attention to.

Keywords: Sharks, Populations, Species, Decline

Project 3: Part I Research Process

Project 3: Research Process and Annotated Bibliography

Research Question: How is human progression affecting nature's ecological functions of apex

predators like Sharks?

For project 3 I was very excited to research a topic that interested me. I began researching

this issue during project 2 when I translated an article from Nature.com to be more easy to

understand for a public audience. Upon translating this article I realized that this is a very current

issue and is important to raise awareness for. So when I began my research process for Project 3,

I quickly found sources related to this pressing issue. The topic at hand being the 70% decline in

shark populations all over the world. Upon delving into this topic I found there is much

supporting evidence for this issue and many calls for action. The ongoing biology article opened

my eyes to the fact that there are already some sanctions in place to protect certain shark species.

However, even those “protected” species have experienced similar if not identical decline in

population over the years.

The deeper I dove (pun intended), the more I realized that there is a big community of

people working to gather more information on this topic. It is very interesting to see how one

overarching issue can show one the many ways a topic can branch off. Once I became conscious

of the fact that there is a rapidly declining shark population, it was then a matter of finding more

specific and detailed information. I began by looking into articles like the “Current Biology”

article which details the population patterns of coral reef sharks. I began finding trends in most

articles that addressed a more specific region or species of sharks. Time and time again my

original research question became an increasingly important one. I found trends in scholarly

articles in order to present ample information for the research topic’s claims.

The main goal I wished to achieve while researching this topic was to raise awareness

about a very pressing issue. What makes this issue very unique is its relevance. What many of
Project 3: Research Process and Annotated Bibliography

the researchers writing these articles stress, and what I hope to stress is that we are running out of

time. Humans must act very soon, otherwise there could be irreversible damage done to marine

ecosystems. The research and supporting facts for this issue is all there at this point. There are

more opportunities for more specific observations of certain shark species. However, the simple

fact that all sharks are suffering and they have been for years is reason enough to begin

discussing solutions. Only a couple of the articles within this annotated bibliography contain

discussions of how to go about remedying this issue. However, the truth is that many people

don’t know what can be done.

The overwhelming cause for this decline in population is the overfishing done by

humans. And as the “Ongoing Biology” article pointed out, current legislation is not doing

enough to protect sharks. So unless the whole world were to stop fishing, currently there's no

clear solution on how to save the sharks. Hopefully we have some of the world's brightest

researchers and scientists working to find a solution, one can only hope we can figure something

out before it's too late.

Annotated Bibliography: Part II

Project 3: Research Process and Annotated Bibliography

Pacoureau, N., Rigby, C. L., Kyne, P. M., Sherley, R. B., Winker, H., Carlson, J. K., Fordham, S.

V., Barreto, R.,

Fernando, D., Francis, M. P., Jabado, R. W., Herman, K. B., Liu, K. M., Marshall, A. D.,

Pollom, R. A., Romanov, E. V., Simpfendorfer, C. A., Yin, J. S., Kindsvater, H. K., &

Dulvy, N. K. (2021). Half a century of global decline in oceanic sharks and rays. Nature,

589(7843), 567–571. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03173-9

This article was sent shockwaves in the marine biology community upon it being

published. This article goes into depth about the migratory and population patterns of

many shark species all over the world. The findings tell us that shark populations have

been steadily declining for the past 50 years by over 70%. This decline is directly related

to humans and over fishing. The decline has been in ray populations as well. Immediate

action must be taken to preserve the shark species that we do have left. This article is

noteworthy because it was published by a research team composed of many

accomplished scientists and professors. I will be able to use this article to support my

research question by proving the immediate attention needed for this dire situation.

Rice, D. U. T. (2021, January 28). Shark numbers in “alarming” worldwide decline as many

species face extinction, study says. USA TODAY.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/01/27/shark-populations-declining-

worldwide-study-reports/4279611001/

This publication is a popular article that addresses the aforementioned article published

on Nature.com. This article was a translation similar to what I created for project 2. This

article makes sense of the scientific publication in order for a wider audience to

understand the issues at hand. The article calls for immediate action and states how
Project 3: Research Process and Annotated Bibliography

serious the problem is becoming. The author keeps the rhetoric relatively simple in order

for a large audience to be able to read and understand it. The article is credible because it

is referencing a scholarly article and is also published by the national organization USA

Today. I hope to use this article in my research paper by demonstrating how we can

communicate the findings of this scholarly article to a larger audience and raise

awareness.

McCauley, D. J., McLean, K. A., Bauer, J., Young, H. S., & Micheli, F. (2012). Evaluating

the performance of methods for estimating the abundance of rapidly declining coastal

shark populations. Ecological Applications, 22(2), 385–392. https://doi.org/10.1890/11-

1059.1

This article goes into depth on how to properly assess and issue as big as the declining

shark population. The article outlines the many different methods they used in order to

find important data. The researchers aim to see what works and what doesn't when

determining sample sizes and population sizes to study specific sharks. Each species has

different migratory patterns and behaviour so being able to classify the population

dynamics for a wide array of sharks is difficult. The name of the game with this article is

accuracy and developing a clear idea of the problem at hand. This is a scholarly article

published by accomplished professors. I hope to use this article in my research process to

demonstrate the accuracy of the recent findings on shark populations.

Robbins, W. D., Hisano, M., Connolly, S. R., & Choat, J. H. (2006). Ongoing Collapse of

Coral-Reef Shark Populations. Current Biology, 16(23), 2314–2319.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2006.09.044
Project 3: Research Process and Annotated Bibliography

This article demonstrates an important aspect on the issue of declining shark populations.

While the other articles in this bibliography give us data on why this is a problem, this

article demonstrates that the call for change must also be effective. The current sanctions

in place protecting certain shark populations are not enough. This article goes into depth

on certain “No-take” zones which have been deemed ineffective. The sharks that are so-

called “protected” have seen just as stark declines in their populations. The authors of this

article are well respected professors at universities. I hope to use this in my research

process to demonstrate how not only do we need to address this issue, but also fix current

legislation.

Maynou, F., Sbrana, M., Sartor, P., Maravelias, C., Kavadas, S., Damalas, D., Cartes, J. E., &

Osio, G. (2011). Estimating Trends of Population Decline in Long-Lived Marine Species

in the Mediterranean Sea Based on Fishers’ Perceptions. PLoS ONE, 6(7), e21818.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0021818

This scholarly article aims to gage public fisherman opinion in comparison to continually

declining shark populations. This study interviewed fishermen in multiple different parts

of the world. The interviewers were inquiring as to how many sharks they see on a daily

basis. All of the fishermen were consistently in agreement that shark prevalence has gone

down significantly. This article provides a great deal of value to the overall argument

about shark population decline. Almost every article so far has utilized statistics and in-

depth methods of analysis to observe shark populations. However, this article aims to

gage public opinion on the matter and document if people are noticing the same findings

as these academic articles. I think the very fact that fishermen can actually notice that
Project 3: Research Process and Annotated Bibliography

there are less sharks is very concerning. This presents a very valuable point when

discussing this issue.

Dudley, S. F. J., & Simpfendorfer, C. A. (2006). Population status of 14 shark species caught

in the protective gillnets off KwaZulu - Natal beaches, South Africa, 1978 - 2003.

Marine and Freshwater Research, 57(2), 225. https://doi.org/10.1071/mf05156

This scholarly article aimed to address the effect that shark nets have on shark

populations. Many countries and especially on beaches in Africa, they place enormous

shark nets to ward off shark attacks. This reduces a significant amount of ecosystem for

these sharks and has an affect on their lifespan. This article goes into depth on the many

ways such nets can have detrimental effects for certain shark species. Here we can

observe some of the direct causes of population decline. For the most part, the issue has

been described as human overfishing. However this is the first article to go into detail on

exactly which tactics are causing some of the most detrimental effects. Here we see that

large fishing nets are catching sharks unintentionally through large nets and killing many

sharks for no reason at all.

Lucas, Z., & Stobo, W. T. (2000). Shark-inflicted mortality on a population of harbour seals

(Phoca vitulina) at Sable Island, Nova Scotia. Journal of Zoology, 252(3), 405–414.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2000.tb00636.x

This article does not directly address shark population decline. This scholarly publication

discusses the shark's effect on seal populations. They state that the reproduction rate has

dramatically decreased in seals near Nova Scotia. This is mainly due to sharks hunting
Project 3: Research Process and Annotated Bibliography

this species of seal. However, this was a recent development so one must wonder whether

the sharks had a choice in the matter. Perhaps due to overfishing, sharks have had to

adapt to eating other animals in order to survive. This particular article is interesting in

it’s use of observation over time. As stated, this is not necessarily natural for the sharks to

be hunting these seals so aggressively. With this article we can observe some indirect

effects of shark population decline. Articles like this can give one some insight into the

effects of this issue beyond just the populations of sharks.

Luiz, O. J., & Edwards, A. J. (2011). Extinction of a shark population in the Archipelago of

Saint Paul’s Rocks (equatorial Atlantic) inferred from the historical record. Biological

Conservation, 144(12), 2873–2881. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2011.08.004

This scholarly article discusses the possible extinction of a reef shark species. The

publication goes into depth on the process in which researchers gather such information

and describe their methods for conducting this study. They suspect that certain shark

species are either already extinct or are well on their way. They continually addressed

management failures as the reason these species are disappearing. The article provides an

interesting take on why this issue is so important and how it's our job to fix it. This article

provides an interesting take on what damage has already been done. We do know that

shark populations have been steadily declining for the past 50 years. However, it is

difficult to quantify just how much damage has been done in that time. This publication

claims that certain species simply disappeared before our eyes. This is quite alarming and

makes one wonder just what other species have just disappeared due to human neglect.