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Taxonomy of Wedgefishes and Guitar fishes in Indian Waters

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Relation http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/15725/
 
Title Taxonomy of Wedgefishes and Guitar fishes in Indian Waters
 
Creator Purushottama, G B
Thomas, Sujitha
Kizhakudan, Shoba Joe
Akhilesh, K V
 
Subject Demersal Fishes
Fish Taxonomy
 
Description Interest in elasmobranch biodiversity and taxonomy has grown in recent years (since 2000).
Recognizing the importance of accurate species-level taxonomy in biodiversity studies,
fisheries management, to understand the composition, now additional efforts have been
included in fisheries monitoring. Fisheries scientists are ever more keenly aware of the need
for accurate species-level assessments of catches to manage fisheries effectively. Finally,
conservation biologists are beginning to recognize how critically important it is to have an
accurate understanding of species compositions based on careful taxonomy to prioritize and
manage units of biodiversity for conservation (Naylor et al., 2012). The Cartilaginous fishes,
consisting of sharks, rays and chimeras belongs to class Chondrichthyes. Today, more than
1,400 species live in the seas and freshwater and estuarine systems of the world. In India, the
Chondrichthyes are represented by around 160 species under 67 genera, 28 families and 10
Orders in the Indian region (Kizhakudan et al., 2015). The Bar coding of elasmobranchs is
standard for molecular identification of species. Unfortunately, some of the specimens from
which tissue samples are derived are misidentified when collected, and because there is no
expertly curated reference dataset against which to compare sequences, many are added to
GenBank with their original incorrectly assigned identities. Therefore, the combination of
molecular and the classical taxonomy (based on morphology) of elasmobranchs is essential to
conduct the phylogenetic analysis and avoids incorrect phylogenetic inferences. Globally, 536
shark species, 611 rays and 52 chimeras were assessed by International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessment process. Now, 391 (32.6%) species are
threatened with extinction. Overfishing is the universal threat affecting all 391 threatened
species and is the sole threat for 67.3% of species and interacts with three other threats for the
remaining third: loss and degradation of habitat (31.2% of threatened species), climate change
(10.2%), and pollution (6.9%). Species are disproportionately threatened in tropical and
subtropical coastal waters (Dulvy et al., 2021). Elasmobranchs are characterized by a lifehistory
of slow growth, late maturity, and low fecundity, making them extremely susceptible
to population decline from overexploitation.
 
Publisher ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute
 
Date 2022
 
Type Book Section
PeerReviewed
 
Format text
 
Language en
 
Identifier http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/15725/1/Winter%20School%20on%20Recent%20Development%20in%20Taxonomic%20Techniques%20of%20Marine%20Fishes%20for%20Conservation%20and%20Sustainable%20Fisheries%20Management_2022_Purushottama%20GB.pdf
Purushottama, G B and Thomas, Sujitha and Kizhakudan, Shoba Joe and Akhilesh, K V (2022) Taxonomy of Wedgefishes and Guitar fishes in Indian Waters. In: ICAR-CMFRI -Winter School on Recent Development in Taxonomic Techniques of Marine Fishes for Conservation and Sustainable Fisheries Management. ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, pp. 360-374.