The Shark Assemblage at French Frigate Shoals Atoll, Hawai‘i: Species Composition, Abundance and Habitat Use

Empirical data on the abundance and habitat preferences of coral reef top predators are needed to evaluate their ecological impacts and guide management decisions. We used longline surveys to quantify the shark assemblage at French Frigate Shoals (FFS) atoll from May to August 2009. Fishing effort consisted of 189 longline sets totaling 6,862 hook hours of soak time. A total of 221 sharks from 7 species were captured, among which Galapagos (Carcharhinus galapagensis, 36.2%), gray reef (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos, 25.8%) and tiger (Galeocerdo cuvier, 20.4%) sharks were numerically dominant. A lack of blacktip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) distinguished the FFS shark assemblage from those at many other atolls in the Indo-Pacific. Compared to prior underwater visual survey estimates, longline methods more accurately represented species abundance and composition for the majority of shark species. Sharks were significantly less abundant in the shallow lagoon than adjacent habitats. Recaptures of Galapagos sharks provided the first empirical estimate of population size for any Galapagos shark population. The overall recapture rate was 5.4%. Multiple closed population models were evaluated, with Chao Mh ranking best in model performance and yielding a population estimate of 668 sharks with 95% confidence intervals ranging from 289–1720. Low shark abundance in the shallow lagoon habitats suggests removal of a small number of sharks from the immediate vicinity of lagoonal islets may reduce short-term predation on endangered monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi) pups, but considerable fishing effort would be required to catch even a small number of sharks. Additional data on long-term movements and habitat use of sharks at FFS are required to better assess the likely ecological impacts of shark culling

Systemic lupus erythematosus: Definitions, contexts, conflicts, enigmas

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an inadequately defined syndrome. Etiology and pathogenesis remain largely unknown. SLE is on the other hand a seminal syndrome that has challenged immunologists, biologists, genetics, and clinicians to solve its nature. The syndrome is characterized by multiple, etiologically unlinked manifestations. Unexpectedly, they seem to occur in different stochastically linked clusters, although single gene defects may promote a smaller spectrum of symptoms/criteria typical for SLE. There is no known inner coherence of parameters (criteria) making up the disease. These parameters are, nevertheless, implemented in The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and The Systemic Lupus Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) criteria to classify SLE. Still, SLE is an abstraction since the ACR or SLICC criteria allow us to define hundreds of different clinical SLE phenotypes. This is a major point of the present discussion and uses “The anti-dsDNA antibody” as an example related to the problematic search for biomarkers for SLE. The following discussion will show how problematic this is: the disease is defined through non-coherent classification criteria, its complexity is recognized and accepted, its pathogenesis is plural and poorly understood. Therapy is focused on dominant symptoms or organ manifestations, and not on the syndrome itself. From basic scientific evidences, we can add substantial amount of data that are not sufficiently considered in clinical medicine, which may change the paradigms linked to what “The Anti-DNA antibody” is—and is not—in context of the imperfectly defined syndrome SLE