Projects
Genetic Diversity of Basking Sharks (Cetorhinus maximus)
This study presents the first HAI Norge project. The aim was to investigate the genetic diversity of basking sharks occurring in Norwegian waters using samples from former commercial fisheries that were presumed to be lost for more than 10 years.
Basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) are distributed worldwide. Due to a relatively long gestation period and few offsprings the reproduction rate is relatively low, and the species is therefore very sensitive to overfishing. Accordingly, basking sharks are globally classified as vulnerable in the IUCN red list and listed on Appendix II of the CITES.
Earlier studies have addressed the global mitochondrial DNA diversity through sequencing of 1149 bp of the control region (please see Hoelzel et al. 2006).
The North East Atlantic is an area of special interest because Basking sharks are here classified as endangered in the IUCN red list (along with the North Pacific). We therefore wanted to assess their local mitochondrial DNA diversity by sequencing the available Norwegian samples.
We will keep you posted on the results.
If you are interested in contributing to this project or have ideas about new projects, just contact us.
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