Conservation

Shark populations are in decline worldwide due to pollution, habitat destruction, and most notably, overfishing. Sharks are particularly vulnerable to fishing pressure, as they typically show slow growth, high age at maturity, and produce only a few offspring per litter. Thus once the largest, sexually mature animals are removed from a population, it can take decades for the mating stock to replenish and begin population recovery. For this reason, commercial shark fisheries have traditionally been “boom and bust” enterprises that collapse after a brief period unless strict conservation measures are implemented. The most recent example of this phenomenon has lead to a 50% population reduction in several North Atlantic shark species.

This presents a crucial conservation issue not only for sharks, but for the marine ecosystem in general. Most sharks are apex level predators, and may be keystone species that directly influence ecosystem structure through predator-prey interactions.

Along with several other reef shark species, whitetips are caught as by-catch in large commercial fisheries, and targeted by small artisanal fisheries throughout the tropical Pacific.

In order to properly manage shark populations, we need to know as much as possible about their life history, including daily movement patterns and habitat utilization, long-distance migrations, reproduction, effective population size, etc.

Animal Care

The goal of this study is to analyze movement patterns over several scales of space and time by studying live animals in their natural habitat using several methods, including tagging and photo-identification. This means that it is in our best interest to make sure all animals we encounter are healthy and long-lived so we can learn as much as possible from them.

In this respect, all of our methods are designed to minimize stress on the animals as much as possible, and leave them in as good a shape - if not better than when we found them.

For instance, we often encounter animals with fishing hooks lodged in their mouths, and occasionally even with long leaders still attached and running through their gills. Whenever possible, we will target these animals for capture/tagging and remove those hooks. Often you can still see rusty stains in the corner of the jaw after hooks have been removed.