Data supporting Conservation relevant fine-scale distribution and habitat associations of threatened elasmobranchs in temperate nearshore waters

Elasmobranchs are globally threatened and experiencing ongoing declines. Understanding threatened elasmobranch distribution is critical for developing effective marine conservation strategies. However, our knowledge of fine scale elasmobranch habitat association and distribution in temperate nearshore systems is limited. Here, we examined the presence, relative abundance and habitat association of sharks, skates and rays using benthic baited remote underwater stereo-video systems (SBRUVs). From 772 deployments (682 total hours, 53 minutes average soak time) across three years (2021-2023) and two Scottish sea lochs and adjacent bays, elasmobranchs were detected on 31.2% of deployments (n = 241). Our surveys detected six species of elasmobranchs, flapper skate (Dipturus intermedius), thornback ray (Raja clavata), spotted ray (Raja montagui), lesser spotted dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula), spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) and porbeagle (Lamna nasus) representing 17.6% of the resident elasmobranch diversity reported to date in UK nearshore waters