Long-term patterns of abundance, residency and movements of bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) in Sydney Harbour, Australia.

ABSTRACT: Bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) are known to frequent nearshore environments, particularly estuaries, resulting in interactions with humans. Knowledge of the behaviour of large individuals in temperate, estuarine environments is limited. This acoustic telemetry study reports on residency and movement patterns of 40 sub-adult and adult bull sharks in Sydney Harbour, a large temperate estuary, over seven years. Bull sharks exhibited clear seasonal patterns in their occurrence during the austral summer and autumn, with abundance peaking in January and February. This pattern was consistent between sexes and across all sizes. Bull sharks displayed weak diel differences in their spatial distribution, with individuals using areas further from the Harbour entrance more frequently during the day

SUBMITTER: Smoothey AF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6906466 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature