Over the last few years, we have been developing content around South African
Sharks & Rays – scientific, creative, and informative. We have created this page to SHARE all this
content with you and encourage you to DOWNLOAD it (for FREE) and share far and wide. Together
we can ALL increase protection for South Africa’s some 200 shark and ray species.

PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS

Publications

Reports

Shark and Ray Systematic Conservation Plan

 

Each of these maps show the distribution of a different shark or ray species that occurs in South African waters. The distribution has been modelled using data from many collaborators across the country and internationally, as well as from public data repositories. Each distribution is restricted to South Africa’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which goes out for 200nm (~370km) from the coastline.

 

The resolution of these distribution maps is 10 x 10 km. This means that the EEZ has been divided into 10km 2 grid cells and each grid cell has been assigned a value between 0 and 1 which represents a scale of the probability of occurrence for the given species in that specific grid cell. A value of 0 (purple) indicates a very unlikely probability of the species occurring in that area whilst a probability of 1 (yellow) indicates a very strong probability of the species occurring in the area.

 

Overlaid on top of each map is an outline of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) range for that species (when available).

 

These modelling methods are described in the WILDOCEANS Conservation Plan Report (under Reports Tab)

Shark and Ray Conservation Plan Report:

Faure Beaulieu, N., Lombard, A., Olbers, J.M., Goodall, V. and J.M. Harris. 2022. A systematic conservation Plan for sharks and rays in South Africa. WILDTRUST Unpublished Report number 3. 76pp. [download].

 

Distribution Maps for South African Sharks and Rays:

Faure Beaulieu, N. and V. Goodall. 2022. Distribution Maps for sharks and rays found in South African Waters, In: Faure Beaulieu, N., Lombard, A., Olbers, J.M., Goodall, V. and J.M. Harris. 2022. A systematic conservation Plan for sharks and rays in South Africa.  WILDTRUST Unpublished Report number 3. 76pp. [download].

Sharks & Rays of South Africa – a species database [download]

To Cite this database:

Cliff, G. 2024. South African Shark and Ray Species Database, 3 March 2024. WILDTRUST, Shark Attack Campaign, Link. Accessed on [date].

 

Sharks & Rays of South Africa – a bibliography [download]

This document comprises a list of shark and ray literature relevant to South Africa. It was originally created by Dr Alison Kock (SANParks) and later was refined and updated during the WILDTRUST’s Shark and Ray protection project, funded by Shark Conservation Fund (2019-2022).

Policy & Management 

RESPONSIBLE SHARK DIVING – COURSE

This course which focuses on RESPONSIBLE DIVING WITH RAGGEDTOOTH SHARKS, is for dive leaders and all scuba divers who would like to encounter raggedtooth sharks in Sodwana Bay with the least amount of disturbance, whilst broadening their knowledge of the species. FIND OUT MORE HERE: https://training.sharklife.co.za/