Researchers used satellites to track five critically endangered Taiwanese wedgefish, identifying the waters off the west coast and Penghu County as key habitats essential to the species’ survival, the Fisheries Research Institute said yesterday.
The wedgefish (Rhynchobatus immaculatus) is a shark-like ray that is listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
It was named an endemic species to Taiwan in 2013 and lives in shallow coastal and continental shelf waters off the west coast.
Photo courtesy of the Fisheries Research Institute
It can grow up to 2m long and gives birth in the summer, often close to Taichung, as well as Yunlin, Chiayi and Penghu counties, the institute said.
Its population continues to decline due to fishing bycatch and habitat degradation and loss, it said, adding that it was previously consumed in Taiwan and exported to aquariums.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora included all species of wedgefish in its list of trade controls in 2019.
In 2023, the institute was commissioned by the Ocean Conservation Administration to research the wedgefish.
It has since been working with fishermen in Yunlin and Penghu counties to carry out tagging and release operations, it said.
Last year, the institute attached satellite tags to five Taiwanese wedgefish to track their movements and swimming depths over the span of one year, it said.
Preliminary results showed that the species’ activity depends on body size, with juveniles more active in coastal and continental shelf waters at shallow depths of less than 30m, while larger adults tended to prefer depths of more than 100m, it said.
The study remains in the early stages, although data already provide valuable reference information for understanding the species’ ecological characteristics, it said.
The institute said it would continue to conduct multiyear surveys to accumulate more data.
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