Mundo Azul Foundation (FUNMZ) has carried out a scientific monitoring program along Guatemala’s Pacific and Caribbean coasts for the past twelve years, with particular focus on the continental shelf and its extension toward the Cayman Trench, one of the deepest points in the Caribbean Sea. This work, carried out by a team of biologists and technicians in collaboration with small-scale fishers from communities such as El Quetzalito, Livingston, Buena Vista, Las Lisas, and Sipacate, has produced twenty peer-reviewed scientific publications in international journals. This synthesis presents, by theme, the principal findings and their relationship to marine conservation and fisheries management in the country.
Chapter 1 | Deep-water biodiversity of the Guatemalan Caribbean
Between 2016 and 2024, the FUNMZ team documented the first records for Guatemala of several deep-water chondrichthyan species in the Caribbean: the sixgill shark, also known as the bluntnose sixgill shark (Hexanchus griseus) (Sánchez-Jiménez et al., 2024b), the kitefin shark (Dalatias licha) (Sánchez-Jiménez et al., 2024a), the white saddled catshark (Scyliorhinus hesperius) (Hacohen-Domené et al., 2016), and the sharpnose sevengill shark (Heptranchias perlo) (Hacohen-Domené et al., 2017).
This list was joined by the record of the chimaera (Neoharriotta carri), known locally by fishers as “tiburón elefante” (“elephant shark”) whose presence in El Quetzalito represents, to date, the northernmost point where the species has been recorded in the western Atlantic (Polanco-Vásquez et al., 2017), as well as a documented range extension of the roughskin spurdog (Cirrhigaleus asper) into the Guatemalan Caribbean (Polanco-Vásquez et al., 2022).
In addition, complete morphometric series were generated for ten individuals of the Atlantic sixgill shark (Hexanchus vitulus) captured between 2015 and 2019 (Avalos-Castillo et al., 2020).
These individual records were later incorporated into a study that documented 124 individuals from nine species of deep-water chondrichthyans off the coast of El Quetzalito, near the Cayman Trench, combining artisanal fisher landings with the team’s own bottom-longline expeditions conducted between 2015 and 2025 (Hernández-Solís et al., 2026).
The gulper shark (Centrophorus granulosus), classified as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), was the most frequently recorded species, with a declining trend in catch rates over the course of the study period (Hernández-Solís et al., 2026).
This deep-water monitoring effort was complemented by a second research component focused on the shallow reefs of the same coastal area. Using Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS), a non-invasive observation method, the richness of reef fish off Amatique Bay, Izabal, was documented for the first time: 778 organisms across 59 species, with the reefs of El Quetzalito recording the highest richness and abundance of the entire sampled area. The study identified a low presence of commercially important species, a relevant indicator for assessing the state of the reef ecosystem under fishing pressure (Polanco-Vásquez et al., 2018).
Chapter 2 | Characterization of artisanal fisheries
On the Caribbean coast, the artisanal elasmobranch fishery of the El Quetzalito and Livingston communities was characterized in terms of landing sites, fishing gear used, and the communities dependent on this resource (Hacohen-Domené et al., 2020). On the Pacific coast, an equivalent study characterized the fishery in three communities between May 2017 and March 2020 (Avalos Castillo & Santana Morales, 2021). A third study, also on the Pacific coast, documented elasmobranch bycatch in the shrimp trawl fishery, identifying the vermiculate electric ray (Narcine vermiculata), the Panamic stingray (Urotrygon aspidura), and the white-nose guitarfish (Pseudobatos leucorhynchus) as the most frequently captured species (Sánchez et al., 2023).
The most extensive study in this line of research, in terms of time span, analyzed 2,386 days of monitoring and 9,527 fishing trips recorded between 2017 and 2024 across the main Pacific communities, documenting a total of 24,987 sharks from 14 species. Five of these, the scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini), the Pacific sharpnose shark (Rhizoprionodon longurio), the silky shark (Carcharhinus falciformis), the sicklefin smoothhound (Mustelus lunulatus), and the blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) accounted for 98.5% of recorded landings. 78.5% of the species identified are classified as threatened by the IUCN. The study was carried out in support of Guatemala’s National Plan of Action for Sharks, Rays, and Chimaeras (PAN-Guatemala) (Chacón-Paz et al., 2026).
A complementary study documented the socioeconomic dimensions and value chain of Guatemala’s small-scale elasmobranch fishery, with an emphasis on its relationship to food security and income for coastal communities (Rosales-Melgar et al., 2024).
Chapter 3 | Trade and genetic traceability of sharks and rays
Guatemala shows significant consumption of shark and ray meat during the Lenten season, owing to its tradition and its status as a two-coast country. In the absence of data on the actual composition of this trade, a team from Florida International University, Chicago’s Field Museum, and Mundo Azul Foundation conducted a genetic analysis of 407 meat samples collected in markets across six cities, Puerto Barrios, Guatemala City, Jalapa, Chimaltenango, Zaragoza, and Quetzaltenango, between 2016, 2017, and 2022 (Kasana et al., 2025).
Using DNA barcoding, 370 of the 407 samples analyzed were successfully identified, corresponding to 19 species of sharks and rays, several of them classified as threatened or protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). 22% of products sold as “shark” were in fact mislabeled bony fish, including common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) and Indo-Pacific sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus). The study was published under the title Hunt for the Easter Sharks: A genetic analysis of shark and ray meat markets in Guatemala (Kasana et al., 2025).
Chapter 4 | Nursery areas of the scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini)
The scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini), listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, is the most frequently landed shark species in Guatemala 's artisanal fisheries. Between 2017 and 2023, fishery-dependent monitoring together with a citizen science component in three Pacific communities, Buena Vista, Las Lisas, and Sipacate, recorded 10,000 landed individuals (Sánchez-Jiménez et al., 2025).
More than 96% of the individuals recorded were newborns or juveniles just a few months old, with landing peaks consistently occurring between May and August across the years of the study. This pattern indicates that the three coastal areas evaluated, shallow waters with muddy bottoms, function as nursery areas for the species. Sipacate, given the characteristics of its coastal shelf, recorded the highest number of pups (Sánchez-Jiménez et al., 2025).
These results support the establishment of Fish Replenishment Zones in each of the three communities evaluated, as a fisheries management mechanism grounded in biological criteria (Sánchez-Jiménez et al., 2025).
Chapter 5 | Integration of findings into regional and global assessments
Findings generated in Guatemala have been incorporated into larger-scale conservation assessments. The review of the 14 eastern Pacific round ray species (family Urotrygonidae) against IUCN Red List criteria incorporated information generated in the country as part of this regional assessment process (Morales-Saldaña et al., 2022).
The study Extinction risk, reconstructed catches and management of chondrichthyan fishes in the Western Central Atlantic Ocean, produced by a consortium of researchers from across the region, including Guatemalan colleagues, under the Global Shark Trends Project, assessed the extinction risk of 180 species of sharks, rays, and chimaeras in the Western Central Atlantic (Talwar et al., 2022).
Along the same line, the first record of the scoophead shark (Sphyrna media) and new records of the great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran) in the Guatemalan Pacific were documented (Hernández et al., 2025) The team’s most recent publication, from 2026, analyzes shark species composition and catch variability in the Pacific artisanal fishery, with an explicit call for spatial and temporal fisheries management (Chacón-Paz et al., 2026).
Chapter 6 | Citizen science and community participation
The publications described share a common methodological component: sustained collaboration with small-scale fishers from communities such as El Quetzalito, Livingston, Buena Vista, Las Lisas, and Sipacate, who have taken part in data collection through fishery-dependent monitoring and citizen science programs over periods of up to ten consecutive years (Chacón-Paz et al., 2026; Hernández-Solís et al., 2026; Sánchez-Jiménez et al., 2025).
This approach has made it possible to build the most extensive available database on elasmobranchs in Guatemala, and it constitutes a replicable methodological component for future lines of research.
Chapter 7 | Conclusions and public policy projections
Taken together, these publications provide a body of scientific evidence for marine conservation in Guatemala: baseline records of species not previously documented in the country, a quantified inventory of the species caught and sold, the identification of nursery areas for a critically endangered species, and a formal link between this evidence and existing public policy frameworks, in particular Guatemala’s National Plan Of Action for Chondrichthyans (NPOA-Guatemala) (Chacón-Paz et al., 2026; Sánchez-Jiménez et al., 2025).
The findings synthesized here are intended to support decision-making by the entities responsible for establishing fisheries recovery zones, delimiting marine protected areas based on biological criteria, and enforcing the international commitments Guatemala has already signed regarding marine conservation.
References
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