Home Institution

Middlebury College

Publication Date

Spring 2024

Program Name

Panama: Tropical Ecology, Marine Ecosystems, and Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract

Sharks play a critical role in marine ecosystems as apex predators that exert top-down control of lower trophic levels. In recent decades, global shark populations have declined to unprecedented levels, triggering a cascade effect that threatens ecosystem functioning and, therefore, coastal community livelihoods that rely on marine resources for food and income. It is known that shark populations are vulnerable and on the decline due to anthropogenic stressors such as fishing and coastal development, but shark species composition and abundance are difficult to monitor due to the evasive nature of sharks, the often remote and inaccessible location of certain shark populations, a lack of support for shark conservation efforts, and deficient baseline data. The Guna Yala comarca, a semi-autonomous Indigenous territory located on the eastern Caribbean coast of Panama, is home to high levels of marine biodiversity, specifically in coral reef ecosystems. Guna Yala’s 49 island communities practice subsistence fishing; marine invertebrates and fish are the principal protein source for communities. In the Guna Yala region, baseline data on shark species composition and abundance does not exist. Consequently, long-term shark abundance trends are not well understood in the area. It’s important to understand shifting marine biodiversity and community composition in the comarca because these changes will directly impact access to food and other marine resources, threatening food, job, and cultural security. Although there is a lack of empirical quantitative research in the area, Guna communities hold valuable and diverse knowledge systems surrounding shark species composition and abundance due to their comprehensive understanding of marine ecosystems that results from the deep reliance of the communities on marine resources. The aim of this study was to examine the perspectives of Guna people on shark species composition, abundance, long-term trends, personal sentiments, and cultural significance of sharks to understand the potential of Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) as a viable method for evaluating shark ecology in Guna Yala using a semi-structured interview technique. Interview participants were asked a series of 3 yes/no and 2 open-ended questions. Responses were recorded, translated from Spanish to English, and grouped in order to identify main themes. Analysis revealed that the majority (93%) of participants believe that sharks are important to ocean health and the majority of those asked (71% of 7 participants) said that they have observed a decline in shark abundance over the years. Nine different shark common name types were mentioned as having been observed, including the critically overfished hammerhead shark. There was low consensus regarding the question of cultural significance, indicating that ‘cultural significance’ may be interpreted in different ways and is difficult to quantify. Comparing interview responses with past shark abundance research in Panama and other LEK-based studies suggests that in Guna Yala, interview-based research surrounding ecological trends could be an effective and important tool in furthering our understanding of how shark communities are being altered by climate change—an initial step in identifying the impacts that changing population dynamics will have on the greater environment and on human communities.

Disciplines

Biodiversity | Community-Based Research | Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment | Indigenous Studies | Marine Biology | Natural Resources and Conservation | Oceanography

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