A multi-method assessment of elasmobranch communities in a high conservation and management priority region

Elasmobranch (shark and ray) communities are important for healthy marine ecosystems; however, historical commercial shark fishing on the North-West coast of Western Australia (WA), a global diversity hotspot, heavily impacted several of these species and has been intensively managed since to revert population declines. Traditional monitoring techniques, like longlines and Baited Remote Underwater Video systems (BRUVs), are effective at surveying species within this clade but are intrinsically biased and invasive. Environmental DNA (eDNA) utilises trace genetic fragments found in the environment to detect species presence and hence can survey biodiversity in a non-invasive manner. In this study, we compared elasmobranch diversity, spatial and depth variation across North-West WA from three methodologies: longlines, pelagic BRUVs, and eDNA. This data repository includes: sample collection metadata, the final abundance/taxonomic matrix used for analysis and the raw demultiplexed eDNA sequencing data.