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Satellite tagging of blue sharks (Prionace glauca) and other pelagic sharks off eastern Australia: depth behaviour, temperature experience and movements

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Abstract

Satellite telemetry was used to study the movements and behaviour of ten blue sharks and one individual each of shortfin mako, thresher and bigeye thresher off eastern Australia. The tracks showed latitudinal movements of up to 1,900 km, but none of the sharks travelled away from the eastern Australian region. Tracking periods did not exceed 177 days. All species showed oscillatory dive behaviour between the surface layers to as deep as 560–1,000 m. Blue sharks spent 35–58% of their time in <50 m depths and 10–16% of their time in >300 m. Of these four species, the bigeye thresher spent the least time in the surface layers and the most time at >300 m depth. All four species showed clear diel behaviour generally occupying shallower depths at night than during the day. Blue sharks were mainly in 17.5–20.0°C water, while the thresher sharks showed a more bimodal temperature distribution.

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Acknowledgments

We thank John Gunn for obtaining funds to purchase satellite tags to help in our understanding of the ecosystem supporting the East Coast Tuna and Billfish Fishery, Thor Carter for his help in deploying tags from commercial longline vessels, Alistair Hobday for some suggestions on data presentation and Barry Bruce and Colin Simpfendorfer, together with two anonymous referees, for helpful and constructive comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research and the Wealth from Oceans Flagship Programme.

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  1. CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research, GPO Box 1538, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia

    John D. Stevens, Russell W. Bradford & Grant J. West

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  1. John D. Stevens
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  2. Russell W. Bradford
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  3. Grant J. West
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Correspondence to John D. Stevens.

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Communicated by S. Garthe.

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Stevens, J.D., Bradford, R.W. & West, G.J. Satellite tagging of blue sharks (Prionace glauca) and other pelagic sharks off eastern Australia: depth behaviour, temperature experience and movements. Mar Biol 157, 575–591 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-009-1343-6

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