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From December 2012 to June 2014, 796 Pacific guitarfish were caught in 183 fishing sets in northern Peru. Catch occurred in 86.3% of sets. Most individuals caught were mature with a bias toward males. The mean total length for females and males was 83.4 cm, and 91.1 cm, respectively. The capture per unit effort (CPUE) was 12.6 ± 3.4 guitarfish (km.12 h) -1 . The length-weight relationships showed that this species presents a sexual dimorphism in growth. These results support the importance of Sechura Bay as a key area for this species. This study represents the first species-specific fishery data for the Pacific guitarfish., (© 2024 Fisheries Society of the British Isles.)

Illegal wildlife trade has been identified as a major source of global commerce of seahorses. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora listed the genus Hippocampus in Appendix II in 2004, when several countries that commercialized these species also banned transactions through domestic legislation, Peru being one of them. Nevertheless, since the 2004 ban was decreed in Peru, transactions have continued, including international commerce, as well confiscations of illegal seahorse Hippocampus ingens (Girard 1858) products. The authors reviewed three official government sources for information on seahorse trade in Peru, identifying differences in the reporting of the two agencies that monitor exports and imports of seahorses, likely due to non-standardized use of product categorization codes (Partidas Arancelarias). Confiscations reported by one of the agencies confirmed that illegal trade continued despite the ban and in similar amounts of what was exported by Peru before the ban (1053 kg confiscated in 2019 vs. 1460 kg exported in 2004, an estimated 437,888 and 607,067 seahorses, respectively). This review highlights gaps in seahorse conservation in Peru, which include research gaps (e.g., taxonomy, biology and use of habitats) as well as the identification of fisheries impact and improvements in by-catch reporting. This review also highlights areas for possible improvement in international trade (e.g., standardized descriptions of Partidas) that ultimately would allow the country to follow the Convention for Illegal Trade of Endangered Species regulations for seahorses., (© 2022 Fisheries Society of the British Isles.)

The Peruvian sea represents one of the most productive ocean ecosystems and possesses one of the largest elasmobranch fisheries in the Pacific Ocean. Ecosystem-based management of these fisheries will require information on the trophic ecology of elasmobranchs. This study aimed to understand the diet, trophic interactions and the role of nine commercial elasmobranch species in northern Peru through the analysis of stomach contents. A total of 865 non-empty stomachs were analysed. Off northern Peru, elasmobranchs function as upper-trophic-level species consuming 78 prey items, predominantly teleosts and cephalopods. Two distinctive trophic assemblages were identified: (a) sharks (smooth hammerhead shark Sphyrna zygaena, thresher shark Alopias spp. and blue shark Prionace glauca) that feed mainly on cephalopods in the pelagic ecosystem; and (b) sharks and batoids (Chilean eagle ray Myliobatis chilensis, humpback smooth-hound Mustelus whitneyi, spotted houndshark Triakis maculata, Pacific guitarfish Pseudobatos planiceps, copper shark Carcharhinus brachyurus and school shark Galeorhinus galeus) that feed mainly on teleosts and invertebrates in the benthonic and pelagic coastal ecosystem. This study reveals for the first time the diet of T. maculata and the importance of elasmobranchs as predators of abundant and commercial species (i.e., jumbo squid Dosidicus gigas and Peruvian anchovy Engraulis ringens). The results of this study can assist in the design of an ecosystem-based management for the northern Peruvian sea and the conservation of these highly exploited, threatened or poorly understood group of predators in one of the most productive marine ecosystems., (© 2020 Fisheries Society of the British Isles.)

Reports were compiled of sunfish (family Molidae) by-catch in Peruvian small-scale fisheries and sunfish by-catch rates were estimated using data from shore-based and onboard monitoring programmes. A total of 114 sunfishes were reported in the longline and gillnet fisheries along the Peru coast from 2005 to 2017. Systematic monitoring effort of small-scale gillnets leads to an estimate of between 23 and 352 individuals captured annually by the fleet fishing from the northern port of Salaverry and central ports of Ancon and Chorrillos and suggests that the actual number captured by the Peruvian gillnet fleet is in the thousands of individuals. Thus, Peruvian small-scale fisheries have the potential to greatly affect populations of these still poorly studied species. Moreover, new occurrence locations are reported for the newly described Mola tecta, which was only observed south of 11° S. Because of physical similarities among Mola species it was difficult to identify sunfishes to the species level and thus further studies (e.g., genetics) will be required to provide more detailed information on individual species vulnerability to by-catch in Peruvian waters., (© 2018 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.)