Indigenous fishers rethink shark hunting & protect species on Colombia’s coast

LA GUAJIRA, Colombia — Four sharks and a ray lay lifeless on the sandy shore, their carcasses basking in the wind. Wilfrido Arends, a 46-year-old fisher from Colombia’s Wayuu Indigenous community, stands feet away from the ocean, his short knife glinting in his hand. He meticulously cuts a fin from one shark, an endangered species called blacknose (Carcharhinus acronotus), before handing the sample to a fellow fisher for preservation.

Using a tape measure, Arends records the shark's measurements, ensuring the data is accurately documented. As a spearhead of shark research and conservation in Punta Gallinas, a Wayuu community at the northernmost tip of South America, Arends emphasizes the importance of preserving sharks, noting, "If we wipe out our sharks, I think that further down the line we will miss them."

Collaborating with researchers from Colombia’s shark conservation initiative Proyecto Puyuii, Arends and other Wayuu fishers are diligently documenting shark diversity in the largely unexplored waters of La Guajira. Diego Cardeñosa, a marine biologist from Florida International University and a member of Proyecto Puyuii, highlights the lack of data on these species, stating, "There’s almost no data on anything."