Fisheries Research Articles
Acoustic and conventional tagging support the growth patterns of grey nurse sharks and reveal their large-scale displacements in the west coast of Australia
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-29-2019
Journal Title
Marine Biology
ISSN
ISSN :1432-1793
Keywords
Acoustic tagging, Grey Nurse sharks, Western Australia, Overfishing, Acoustic telemetry
Disciplines
Aquaculture and Fisheries | Behavior and Ethology | Data Science | Environmental Monitoring | Marine Biology | Natural Resource Economics | Natural Resources and Conservation | Natural Resources Management and Policy | Population Biology | Spatial Science | Survival Analysis | Sustainability
Abstract
The grey nurse shark, Carcharias taurus, is a globally vulnerable coastal species with aggregatory behaviour and low productivity, making it highly susceptible to overfishing. Little is known on the biology and movement for the population along the west coast of Australia. Here we use acoustic telemetry to show that C. taurus can undertake large-scale movements and potentially capitalise on seasonal prey aggregations. Conventional tagging provided evidence to support the growth parameter values used to represent the species’ growth dynamics and considerably extended the species’ maximum observed age. As maximum age is a proxy for productivity, our findings directly inform the recovery plan currently in place for Australian C. taurus.
Recommended Citation
Jakobs, S., Braccini, M. Acoustic and conventional tagging support the growth patterns of grey nurse sharks and reveal their large-scale displacements in the west coast of Australia. Mar Biol 166, 150 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-019-3594-1
