Long‐term satellite tracking reveals region‐specific movements of a large pelagic predator, the shortfin mako shark, in the western North Atlantic Ocean

Vaudo, Jeremy J.; Byrne, Michael E.; Wetherbee, Bradley M.; Harvey, Guy; Shivji, Mahmood S.

doi:10.1111/1365-2664.12852

Cited by 54 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…In comparison, the OWA is characterized by high variability in temperature and productivity and is influenced by the Gulf Stream, its associated eddies, and experiences significant climatic seasonality in northerly locations (Longhurst 2007). Delineation of mako shark movements into two broad ecoregions is also supported by previous work that has revealed that mako sharks tagged off the east coast of the U.S. have high fidelity to the temperate waters of the western North Atlantic, whereas mako sharks tagged off the Yucatan Peninsula remain almost exclusively within the CGM region with little spatial overlap between individuals tagged in the two regions (Vaudo et al 2017).…”

Section: Study Areasupporting

confidence: 52%

“…The dynamic nature of mako shark behavior in the OWA likely reflects this dynamic environment. Resident activity peaked during late summer and early autumn (August-October), corresponding to the annual peak in PP (Vaudo et al 2017), which had a significant influence on residency in the OWA. Conversely, the low prevalence of resident behavior in winter and early spring correspond to a time of regionally low PP.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous research has shown that extreme outliers and long gaps in detection data can result in unreliable SSM estimates (Bailey et al 2008). Therefore, prior to fitting SSMs we identified and removed outliers by applying a speeddistance-angle filter (Freitas et al 2008) to remove locations > 5 km from the previous location requiring travel speeds > 4.47 m s −1 , as well as locations requiring turn angles of ≥ 165° and ≥ 155° if distance from the previous location was >5 km and 8 km, respectively (Vaudo et al 2017). To reduce spurious results associated with detection gaps, when gaps between raw satellite locations were >10 days, we segmented the track at the gap and created separate tracks.…”

Section: State-space Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The shortfin mako shark Isurus oxyrinchus (hereafter: mako), is an upper level pelagic predator that is globally distributed throughout temperate and tropical oceanic regions. Although highly-mobile and capable of engaging in long distance movements, tracking studies demonstrate that mako populations exhibit high fidelity to particular oceanic regions (Block et al 2011, Rogers et al 2015, Vaudo et al 2017, Francis et al 2019. This trait can be exploited to develop natural experiments, in which mako sharks across oceanic regions are studied in a methodologically consistent manner, facilitating meaningful comparisons between ecosystems (McIntire and Fajardo 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavioral response of a mobile marine predator to environmental variables differs across ecoregions

et al. 2019

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Animal movement and habitat selection are in part a response to landscape heterogeneity. Many studies of movement and habitat selection necessarily use environmental covariates that are readily available over large‐scales, which are assumed representative of functional habitat features such as resource availability. For widely distributed species, response to such covariates may not be consistent across ecosystems, as response to any specific covariate is driven by its biological relevance within the context of each ecosystem. Thus, the study of any widely distributed species within a limited geographic region may provide inferences that are not widely generalizable. Our goal was to evaluate the response of a marine predator to a suite of environmental covariates across a wide ecological gradient. We identified two behavioral states (resident and transient) in the movements of shortfin mako sharks Isurus oxyrinchus tracked via satellite telemetry in two regions of the western North Atlantic Ocean: the tropical Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico marginal sea (CGM), and the temperate waters of the open western Atlantic Ocean (OWA). We compared patterns of resident behavior between regions, and modeled relationships between oceanographic variables and resident behavior. We tracked 39 sharks during 2013–2015. Resident behavior was associated with shallow, continental shelf and slope waters in both regions. In the OWA resident behavior was associated with low sea surface temperature and high primary productivity, however, sharks exhibited no response to either variable in the CGM. There was a negative relationship between sea‐surface height gradient (a proxy for oceanic fronts) and resident behavior in the OWA, and a positive relationship in the CGM. Our observations likely reflect shark responses to regional variability in factors responsible for the distribution and availability of prey. Our study illustrates the importance of studying widely distributed species in a consistent manner over large spatial scales.

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Section: Study Areasupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: State-space Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavioral response of a mobile marine predator to environmental variables differs across ecoregions

et al. 2019

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“…Several studies have used satellite telemetry to describe the horizontal movement data of large marine vertebrates Block et al, 2011;Hawkes et al, 2011;Hazen et al, 2012;Yurkowski et al, 2016;Citta et al, 2017;Vaudo et al, 2017) and to determine overlap with anthropogenic threats such as fisheries (seabirds: Suryan et al, 2007;Bugoni et al, 2009;Žydelis et al, 2011;sea turtles: da Silva et al, 2011;Witt et al, 2011;Revuelta et al, 2015; marine mammals: Geschke and Chilvers, 2010;Rosenbaum et al, 2014;sharks: Holmes et al, 2014), shipping (marine mammals: Mate et al, 1997;Schorr et al, 2009), and in-water habitat degradation (seabirds: Montevecchi et al, 2012;marine mammals: Johnson and Tyack, 2003;Rosenbaum et al, 2014). Satellite telemetry has been critical in evaluating threat exposure for marine species (Witt et al, 2008;Maxwell et al, 2013;Lascelles et al, 2014) and assessing how efficient conservation boundaries, such as Marine Protected Areas (MPA), are at encompassing the wide ranging habitat distribution of migratory species (Hart et al, 2010;Scott et al, 2012;Young et al, 2015;Maxwell et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informing Marine Protected Area Designation and Management for Nesting Olive Ridley Sea Turtles Using Satellite Tracking

Dawson

Formia²,

Agamboué³

et al. 2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Understanding the horizontal and vertical habitat of olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea), a threatened species, is critical for determining regions for protection and relevant gear modifications that may effectively reduce bycatch, the largest threat to this species. Satellite transmitters were used to determine the movement and dive behavior of 21 female olive ridley turtles tagged in Pongara National Park, Gabon during the 2012, 2013, and 2015 nesting seasons. A switching state-space model was used to filter the tracking data and categorize the internesting and post-nesting movements. Gridded utilization distribution (UD) home range analysis of tracking data revealed that the entire core habitat occurred in the Komo Estuary during the internesting period. Within the Komo Estuary, 58% of this core UD occurred in shipping lanes. Dive data from the 2015 tagging season revealed that during the internesting period, turtles spent the majority of their time resting on the estuary seabed. Approximately 20% of all dive time was spent on the bottom and all maximum dive depths corresponded to the depth of the seabed, indicating that bottom set gear during the internesting period may pose the greatest potential for fisheries interactions. National parks currently protect many of the nesting sites and the Gabon Bleu initiative has formally designated 10 new marine parks and a network of community and industrial fishing zones; this data was a layer used in determining the park and zone boundaries. Shared use of the estuary by fisheries, shipping, and olive ridley turtles creates a need for management measures to reduce interactions. Thus, the results from this study can further provide detailed information that can be used to support the development of evidence-based management plans.

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The role of context in elucidating drivers of animal movement

Lubitz

Bradley

Sheaves

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Despite its consequences for ecological processes and population dynamics, intra‐specific variability is frequently overlooked in animal movement studies. Consequently, the necessary resolution to reveal drivers of individual movement decisions is often lost as animal movement data are aggregated to infer average or population patterns. Thus, an empirical understanding of why a given movement pattern occurs remains patchy for many taxa, especially in marine systems. Nonetheless, movement is often rationalized as being driven by basic life history requirements, such as acquiring energy (feeding), reproduction, predator‐avoidance, and remaining in suitable environmental conditions. However, these life history requirements are central to every individual within a species and thus do not sufficiently account for the high intra‐specific variability in movement behavior and hence fail to fully explain the occurrence of multiple movement strategies within a species. Animal movement appears highly context dependent as, for example, within the same location, the behavior of both resident and migratory individuals is driven by life history requirements, such as feeding or reproduction, however different movement strategies are utilized to fulfill them. A systematic taxa‐wide approach that, instead of averaging population patterns, incorporates and utilizes intra‐specific variability to enable predictions as to which movement patterns can be expected under a certain context, is needed. Here, we use intra‐specific variability in elasmobranchs as a case study to introduce a stepwise approach for studying animal movement drivers that is based on a context‐dependence framework. We examine relevant literature to illustrate how this context‐focused approach can aid in reliably identifying drivers of a specific movement pattern. Ultimately, incorporating behavioral variability in the study of movement drivers can assist in making predictions about behavioral responses to environmental change, overcoming tagging biases, and establishing more efficient conservation measures.

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Long‐term satellite tracking reveals region‐specific movements of a large pelagic predator, the shortfin mako shark, in the western North Atlantic Ocean

Cited by 54 publications

References 34 publications

Behavioral response of a mobile marine predator to environmental variables differs across ecoregions

Behavioral response of a mobile marine predator to environmental variables differs across ecoregions

Informing Marine Protected Area Designation and Management for Nesting Olive Ridley Sea Turtles Using Satellite Tracking

The role of context in elucidating drivers of animal movement

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