Historic Fishery Interactions with White Sharks in the Southern California Bight

Two-year migration of adult female white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) reveals widely separated nursery areas and conservation concerns

“…The white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is a charismatic, apex predator that routinely migrates thousands of kilometers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10], and yet regional population structure exists on a global scale [5,10,11]. Because there are no physical boundaries separating the white-shark populations, behavioral traits that limit mixing may be the mechanism responsible for the observed population structure.…”

Strongly directional and differential swimming behavior of an adult female white shark, Carcharodon carcharias (Chondrichthyes: Lamnidae) from Guadalupe Island, Mexico

“…However, none of these reported long-distance strongly directional movement at the scale demonstrated here (nearly 4,000 km) for an adult white shark. Tracks for four females and three males tagged off Guadalupe Island show most sharks, while in oceanic waters, display meandering tracks with relatively frequent strong changes in direction sometimes interspersed with much shorter periods of directional travel (Domeier, 2012;, 2013. This makes ours the first report of an adult white shark traveling in a fast and strongly directional way to a long-distance area during oceanic travel.…”

“…Recent studies provide details of individual tracks for SPOT-tagged adult white sharks embarking in oceanic travel in the NE Pacific (Domeier, 2012;, 2013. However, none of these reported long-distance strongly directional movement at the scale demonstrated here (nearly 4,000 km) for an adult white shark.…”

“…Recent high-resolution data from 12 sharks tracked with RTSTs shows the NE coast as the overall focal point of white shark distribution in Guadalupe Island. Other studies (Domeier & Nasby-Lucas, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013Nasby-Lucas et al, 2009;Domeier 2012) have shown that white sharks have seasonal site fidelity to Guadalupe Island from July to May with peak numbers from September to November. Sharks generally leave for their westbound oceanic migration between December and May with mean departures dates for both sexes in February; males return to Guadalupe Island each year and females every other year (Domeier & Nasby-Lucas, 2008, 2012, 2013.…”

“…It follows that studies of spatial dynamics of marine species that spend considerable time at the surface should ideally be made with a combination of PAT and RTSTs whenever possible (Bonfil et al, 2005a;Domeier, 2012;. Such an approach would be a cost effective way to increase the chances of obtaining a more complete understanding of the full collection of behaviors shown by marine fauna across their home ranges.…”