![]() IMAR-DOP/UAz is Research and Development Unit no. FCT/MCTES-MEC provided individual funding to FV, JF and PA (SFRH/BD/46891/2008, SFRH/BPD/66532/2009, and Ciência 2008/POPH/QREN). All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.įunding: This work was conducted in the framework of the EU FP7 project MADE, Mitigating adverse ecological impacts of open ocean fisheries (FP7 KBBE/2096). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. Received: MaAccepted: JPublished: August 13, 2014Ĭopyright: © 2014 Vandeperre et al. Tsikliras, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece These results provide important insights into the spatial ecology of pelagic sharks, with implications for the sustainable management of this heavily exploited shark, especially in the central North Atlantic where the presence of a nursery and the seasonal overlap and alternation of different life stages coincides with a high fishing mortality.Ĭitation: Vandeperre F, Aires-da-Silva A, Fontes J, Santos M, Serrão Santos R, Afonso P (2014) Movements of Blue Sharks ( Prionace glauca) across Their Life History. In contrast, juvenile males generally expanded their range southward and apparently displayed a higher degree of behavioural polymorphism. Females engage in seasonal latitudinal migrations until approaching maturity, when they undergo an ontogenic habitat shift towards tropical latitudes. Subsequently, male and female blue sharks spatially segregate. In contrast with previously described nurseries of coastal and semi-pelagic sharks, this oceanic nursery is comparatively vast and open suggesting that shelter from predators is not its main function. The study provides strong evidence for the existence of a discrete central North Atlantic nursery, where juveniles can reside for up to at least 2 years. Notwithstanding a large individual variability, there were pronounced differences in movements and space use across the species' life history. ![]() Blue sharks belonging to different life stages (n = 34) were tracked for periods up to 952 days during which they moved extensively (up to an estimated 28.139 km), occupying large parts of the oceanic basin. This study presents the results of a long-term electronic tagging experiment to investigate the migratory patterns of blue shark, to elucidate how these patterns change across its life history and to assess the existence of a nursery area in the central North Atlantic. These spatial patterns remain poorly understood, particularly for oceanic species such as blue shark ( Prionace glauca), despite its importance for the management and conservation of this highly migratory species. Spatial structuring and segregation by sex and size is considered to be an intrinsic attribute of shark populations. ![]()
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