Habitat use of the nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum, off Recife, Northeast Brazil: a combined survey with longline and acoustic telemetry

Ferreira, Luciana C.; Afonso, André S.; Castilho, Pedro C.; Hazin, Fábio Hissa Vieira

doi:10.1007/s10641-012-0067-5

Cited by 21 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…This distribution seems to agree with the trend observed in another region off northeastern Brazil [70]. Furthermore, the quarterly variation in sex ratio suggests that males tend to leave the study area particularly in the third quarter, which has been confirmed with acoustic telemetry [71]. As for tiger sharks, juveniles comprised the bulk of the catch because only two individuals were as large as the reported size-at-maturity of 310−320 cm TL [72].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Structure and Dynamics of the Shark Assemblage off Recife, Northeastern Brazil

2014

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Understanding the ecological factors that regulate elasmobranch abundance in nearshore waters is essential to effectively manage coastal ecosystems and promote conservation. However, little is known about elasmobranch populations in the western South Atlantic Ocean. An 8-year, standardized longline and drumline survey conducted in nearshore waters off Recife, northeastern Brazil, allowed us to describe the shark assemblage and to monitor abundance dynamics using zero-inflated generalized additive models. This region is mostly used by several carcharhinids and one ginglymostomid, but sphyrnids are also present. Blacknose sharks, Carcharhinus acronotus, were mostly mature individuals and declined in abundance throughout the survey, contrasting with nurse sharks, Ginglymostoma cirratum, which proliferated possibly due to this species being prohibited from all harvest since 2004 in this region. Tiger sharks, Galeocerdo cuvier, were mostly juveniles smaller than 200 cm and seem to use nearshore waters off Recife between January and September. No long-term trend in tiger shark abundance was discernible. Spatial distribution was similar in true coastal species (i.e. blacknose and nurse sharks) whereas tiger sharks were most abundant at the middle continental shelf. The sea surface temperature, tidal amplitude, wind direction, water turbidity, and pluviosity were all selected to predict shark abundance off Recife. Interspecific variability in abundance dynamics across spatiotemporal and environmental gradients suggest that the ecological processes regulating shark abundance are generally independent between species, which could add complexity to multi-species fisheries management frameworks. Yet, further research is warranted to ascertain trends at population levels in the South Atlantic Ocean.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Structure and Dynamics of the Shark Assemblage off Recife, Northeastern Brazil

2014

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“…obesus and G . cirratum (Papastamatiou et al , ; Whitney et al , 2012 a ; Ferreira et al , ; Table SI, Supporting Information) up to tens of km 2 in size in the larger, more mobile species such as C . amblyrhynchos and C .…”

Section: Habitats Movement and Home Rangesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reef sharks: recent advances in ecological understanding to inform conservation

Osgood

Baum

2015

Journal of Fish Biology

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Sharks are increasingly being recognized as important members of coral-reef communities, but their overall conservation status remains uncertain. Nine of the 29 reef-shark species are designated as data deficient in the IUCN Red List, and three-fourths of reef sharks had unknown population trends at the time of their assessment. Fortunately, reef-shark research is on the rise. This new body of research demonstrates reef sharks' high site restriction, fidelity and residency on coral reefs, their broad trophic roles connecting reef communities and their high population genetic structure, all information that should be useful for their management and conservation. Importantly, recent studies on the abundance and population trends of the three classic carcharhinid reef sharks (grey reef shark Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos, blacktip reef shark Carcharhinus melanopterus and whitetip reef shark Triaenodon obesus) may contribute to reassessments identifying them as more vulnerable than currently realized. Because over half of the research effort has focused on only these three reef sharks and the nurse shark Ginglymostoma cirratum in only a few locales, there remain large taxonomic and geographic gaps in reef-shark knowledge. As such, a large portion of reef-shark biodiversity remains uncharacterized despite needs for targeted research identified in their red list assessments. A research agenda for the future should integrate abundance, life history, trophic ecology, genetics, habitat use and movement studies, and expand the breadth of such research to understudied species and localities, in order to better understand the conservation requirements of these species and to motivate effective conservation solutions.

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“…Telemetry studies with pelagic fish other than elasmobranchs in Brazil have only been published for Thunnus albacares with three tagged individuals (Travassos et al, 2009), and for Istiophorus platypterus with four fish (Mourato et al, 2014), highlighting the importance of the present results. The acoustic telemetry articles published with sharks and rays (Bezerra et al, 2019;Branco-Nunes et al, 2016;Ferreira et al, 2013;Niella et al, 2017) also dealt with similar or lower number of tagged fish compared to this study.…”

Section: Insights For the Development Of Fad Fisheries In Coastal Watmentioning

confidence: 99%