Publication Date

4-2016

Series Number

273

Publisher

Department of Fisheries, Western Australia

City

Perth

ISSN

2202-5758

Abstract

This document is a Question and Answer summary based on Fisheries Research Report 273: Evaluation of passive acoustic telemetry approaches for monitoring and mitigating shark hazards off the coast of Western Australia.

Shark attacks are rare but traumatic events that involve complex and dynamic interactions between sharks’ ecology and human demographics and behaviours. To better understand the biological and ecological factors contributing to the series of incidents of white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) attacks off Western Australia, sharks were fitted with acoustic transmitters (‘tags’) that emit unique identification codes every 50 to 150 seconds. Tagged sharks were monitored by up to 143 acoustic receivers off the metropolitan Perth coast since 2009, by another 149 receivers around the South-West of the State since 2012 and by up to 42 off Ningaloo Reef. Between December 2007 and July 2015, 50 white sharks were tagged between Perth and Israelite Bay (approximately 200km east of Esperance) in Western Australia and 151 were tagged by collaborators in South Australian waters. Acoustic tags were surgically-implanted into 30 of the sharks1 tagged in Western Australia, potentially allowing their movements to be monitored for up to a decade. Another 55 large bronze whaler sharks (Carcharhinus brachyurus) and 70 tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) were also internally-tagged with acoustic transmitters so that their presence at key coastal locations can be monitored.

Number of Pages

2

Keywords

Sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, White shark, Behaviour, Acoustic data, Sonic tags, Acoustic telemetry, Tracking, Tagging, Monitoring systems, Public health, Western Australia

Disciplines

Aquaculture and Fisheries | Marine Biology

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