true

ISRA FACTSHEETS

NEW ZEALAND & PACIFIC ISLANDS REGION

ISRA FACTSHEETS

NEW ZEALAND & PACIFIC ISLANDS REGION

Touho ISRA

153/179

Touho ISRA

Touho

Summary

Touho is located on the northeast side of the Grande Terre Island of New Caledonia. The area consists of a barrier reef with reef flats and forereefs, and includes the Great Channel of Touho, a pass with strong currents. It is characterised by dead and live coral substrates with sandy patches. The area overlaps with the Îlots de Poindimié Marin Key Biodiversity Area. Within this area there are: threatened species and undefined aggregations (Reef Manta Ray Mobula alfredi).

Touho

Touho

DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT

Touho is located on the northeast side of the Grande Terre Island of New Caledonia. The area is ~5 km from the coast and consists of a barrier reef with reef flats and forereefs. The area includes the Great Channel of Touho, a pass with strong currents that extends ~10 km. It is characterised by dead and live coral substrates with sandy patches (Pelletier et al. 2020).

The area overlaps with the Îlots de Poindimié Marin Key Biodiversity Area (KBA 2024).

This Important Shark and Ray Area is benthic and pelagic and is delineated from inshore and surface waters (0 m) to 50 m based on the bathymetry of the area.

CRITERION A

VULNERABILITY

One Qualifying Species considered threatened with extinction according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species regularly occurs in the area. This is the Vulnerable Reef Manta Ray (Marshall et al. 2022).

CRITERION C

SUB-CRITERION C5 – UNDEFINED AGGREGATIONS

Touho is an important area for undefined aggregations of one ray species.

Reef Manta Rays regularly and predictably use the cleaning station which characterises this area (Lassauce et al. 2024). Between 2017–2020, photographs of Reef Manta Rays were collected from recreational divers, snorkelers, and during diving surveys across 11 sites in New Caledonia (Lassauce et al. 2024). Additionally, photographs from Touho were taken in 150 days of sampling between 2014–2020, with a higher effort (85.3%) concentrated between 2014–2015 (Lassauce et al. 2024). In Touho, 591 sightings (average = 3.9 individuals sighted per day) were recorded from one aggregation site that serves as a cleaning station, in the northern tip of the Great Channel of Touho. Of the total sightings, 72 individuals were identified within the area with 76.4% of them resighted at least once in a period of 1,196 ± 764 days (maximum of 4,596 days; Lassauce et al. 2024). This cleaning station is located on the reef flat at 15–20 m depth. Within the area, aggregations of 5–20 individuals are regularly observed (H Lassauce unpubl. data 2024). Juveniles and pregnant females (determined by visual size estimation and the presence of extended abdomen) have also been observed within these aggregations (H Lassauce unpubl. data 2024). However, further information is required to determine whether this area is also important for reproductive purposes.

Touho

SUBMIT A REQUEST

ISRA SPATIAL LAYER REQUEST

To make a request to download the ISRA Layer in either a GIS compatible Shapefile (.shp) or Google Earth compatible Keyhole Markup Language Zipped file (.kmz) please complete the following form. We will review your request and send the download details to you. We will endeavor to send you the requested files as soon as we can. However, please note that this is not an automated process, and before requests are responded to, they undergo internal review and authorization. As such, requests normally take 5–10 working days to process.

Should you have questions about the data or process, please do not hesitate to contact us.

    * indicates required

    Industry or sector (*)

    Under the terms and conditions of our User License Agreement , full and appropriate acknowledgement is required in any materials and publications derived from the data (and copies should be sent to the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group through the contact form). For any publications making substantial use of the data, the ISRA welcomes the opportunity for co-authorship, collaboration, and to comment prior to publication.


    Furthermore, we need to know whether you are a commercial or non-commercial user. Non-commercial includes scientific research, education or conservation. Commercial is defined as follows: any use by, on behalf of, or to inform or assist the activities of a commercial entity (that operates ‘for profit’) or use by a non-profit for the purposes of revenue generation

    Type of use(*):

    Please specify which layer (ex. all layers, layers within a specific Region, layers within a Jurisdiction or a single ISRA): Purpose (*):

    Please provide a description of how you intend to use the ISRA GIS Dataset. The more details you provide, the faster we can respond to your request. We may require further clarification prior to providing access. (min. 100 characters – max 1,000 characters)



    File format request (*)

    By providing your personal data, you consent to its processing as described below. The IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group will use the information you provide on this form to send the documents you requested. You can change your mind at any time by writing to the ISRA Data Coordinator www.sharkrayareas.org/contact. All personal details provided will be treated with respect. For any information you can visit our Privacy Policy.
    Please read the User License Agreement and ISRA Layer Metadata Description

    This form uses Google reCaptcha to reduce spam. Privacy - Terms