In ecosystems, sharks can be predators, competitors, facilitators, nutrient transporters, and food. However, overfishing and other threats have greatly reduced shark populations, altering their roles and effects on ecosystems. We review these changes and implications for ecosystem function and management. Macropredatory sharks are often disproportionately affected by humans but can influence prey and coastal ecosystems, including facilitating carbon sequestration. Like terrestrial predators, sharks may be crucial to ecosystem functioning under climate change. However, large ecosystem effects of sharks are not ubiquitous. Increasing human uses of oceans are changing shark roles, necessitating management consideration. Rebuilding key populations and incorporating shark ecological roles, including less obvious ones, into management efforts are critical for retaining sharks’ functional value. Coupled social-ecological frameworks can facilitate these efforts.

Most sharks, rays and chimaeras (chondrichthyans) taken in commercial fisheries are discarded (i.e. returned to the ocean either dead or alive). Quantifying the post-capture survival (PCS) of discarded species is therefore essential for the improved management and conservation of this group. For all chondrichthyans taken in the main shark fishery of Australia, we quantified the immediate PCS of individuals reaching the deck of commercial shark gillnet fishing vessels and applied a risk-based method to semi-quantitatively determine delayed and total PCS. Estimates of immediate, delayed and total PCS were consistent, being very high for the most commonly discarded species (Port Jackson shark, Australian swellshark, and spikey dogfish) and low for the most important commercial species (gummy and school sharks). Increasing gillnet soak time or water temperature significantly decreased PCS. Chondrichthyans with bottom-dwelling habits had the highest PCS whereas those with pelagic habits had the lowest PCS. The risk-based approach can be easily implemented as a standard practice of on-board observing programs, providing a convenient first-step assessment of the PCS of all species taken in commercial fisheries.

Reliable information for population assessments is rare for sharks. We quantified patterns in catch rates and mean size for numerous tropical and subtropical species from 15 years of fishery-independent surveys (2002–2017) in northwestern Australia. This study region represents an area of ~0.8 million km2 which was closed to commercial shark fishing from 1993 or 2005 onward due to the very high State-wide catches of sandbar (Carcharhinus plumbeus) and dusky (Carcharhinus obscurus) sharks. A total of 43 shark and ray species were sampled, with sandbar shark being the most commonly caught species, followed by milk (Rhizoprionodon acutus), spot-tail (Carcharhinus sorrah), tiger (Galeocerdo cuvier), blacktip (Carcharhinus limbatus and Carcharhinus tilstoni), dusky and sliteye (Loxodon macrorhinus) sharks, and scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini). For sandbar shark, catch rates increased between 2008 and 2017 whereas for other taxa catch rates were mostly stable (albeit fluctuating). Mean size at capture fluctuated across years with no particular trends. Unlike for other parts of the world, catch rates and mean size of northwestern Australian sharks have been stable or increased in recent years. Though most shark species have conservative life histories, when science, management and enforcement work synergistically, sustainable resource use, recovery and conservation outcomes can all be achieved.

The extent to which sharks segregate by size and sex determines the population structure and the scale at which populations should be managed. We summarized 20 years of fisheries-dependent and independent sampling to define the spatial patterns of size and sexual segregation for sharks in Western Australia. Carcharhinus obscurus and C. plumbeus showed a large-scale (more than 1000 km) latitudinal gradient in size. Large individuals occurred predominantly in the northwest and north whereas smaller individuals occurred predominantly in the southwest and south. Mustelus antarcticus and Furgaleus macki showed strong sexual segregation at very large scales. Females occurred predominantly in the west and southwest whereas the proportion of males in catches substantially increased in the southeast. The populations of other shark species did not show sex and size segregation patterns at very large scales; most species, however, showed varying degrees of segregation when data were analysed at a smaller scale. These findings highlight the importance of matching the scale of observation to the scale of the phenomenon observed. As many shark species are highly mobile, if sampling is opportunistic and constrained both temporally and spatially, the observed segregation patterns may not be representative of those at the population level, leading to inaccurate scientific advice.