Oysters too could soon be off certain restaurant menus, since cownose rays feed on them as well.
In the Chesapeake Bay alone, the burgeoning cownose ray population could now be consuming 840,000 metric tons, or close to 2 billion pounds, of bivalves annually, according to the Current Biology paper.
In sharp contrast, fishermen in Virginia and Maryland only caught 300 tons, or around 661,380 pounds, of shellfish in 2003. This, Brierley calculated, is "a much lower catch than the historic norm."
Although the shark loss has already begun a marine ecosystem collapse, Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, remains hopeful that a solution could still be within reach.
"These unforeseen and devastating impacts underscore the need to take a more holistic ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management," she said.
Brierley, who supports Pikitch's view, thinks "the grand challenge for marine science is to progress from the apparently interminable documentation of ecosystem decline to establishment of robust management policies."
Such conservation strategies, he said, would be a fitting tribute to Myers and his life's work, which was directed at preserving sharks and other marine species.
