The Revillagigedo Archipelago is a cluster of four widely separated islands located 720 km off the west coast of Mexico. The area was known in the past to harbor impressive populations of sharks, but the region was exposed to extensive illegal fishing and shark finning, and it is not known to what extent shark abundance and diversity has survived or recovered as a result of the area’s protection.

This project will use scuba diving linked to baited remote underwater video surveys (BRUVS) in order to determine the spatial and temporal patterns of occurrence of the species present. In addition, sighting and photographs will be storaged in an online database (sharkbase.mx), where photographers and divers that visit the islands can share their images and support our research.

 Coloration patterns, scares, and natural marks will be used to distinguish each individual using specialized software (I3S). Where possible sharks will be recognised individually through photo-identification and mark-recapture analysis applied to the data to estimate local population size.

 The results will be used to inform urgently required shark conservation efforts, and, if resources permit, the methodology extended to surveys of the two other offshore Mexican national parks, Guadalupe Island (known for great white shark, C. carcharias) and Cabo Pulmo (known for bull shark, C. leucas).