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Research Overview
THE SHARK DIVE within Shark Reef Marine Reserve (SRMR) currently hosts the Bull Shark Tagging Programme. This research project is led by Juerg M. Brunnschweiler and funding is provided by:
The long term goal of the project is to establish SRMR as a prime site for shark research and to produce scientific data that will help towards the conservation of the shark species that regularly visit THE SHARK DIVE at Shark Reef. The Bull Shark Tagging Programme looks at large- and small-scale movement patterns of bull sharks.
Large Scale Tagging Program
Bull sharks can be encountered in great numbers at THE SHARK DIVE in SRMR from January until October, but very few animals are seen during the months of November and December. Year after year the animals migrate away from SRMR during these two months to either give birth or to mate, but where do they go? Using state of the art po-up archival satellite tags, bull sharks can be continuously tracked (even when they are away from THE SHARK DIVE in SRMR) for long periods of time and much can be learned about their ecological niche and behavioural ecology. To date, a total of 11 bull sharks have been tagged, 3 in April '04 and a further 8 in October '04. While the data from this study has shown that bull sharks are able to cover large distances and spend much of their time in a pelagic environment, it tells us very little of the day-to-day movements of these animals.
Small Scale Movement Study
In September '05, a small-scale movement study was begun with the goal of discovering just where these animals are during the course of a complete day. Do they stay within the area of THE SHARK DIVE & SRMR or do they patrol throughout the waters of Beqa Lagoon? Time will only tell.
The waters in and around THE SHARK DIVE & SRMR have been fitted out with acoustic monitoring devices; hopefully we shall have a ring of these around Beqa Lagoon in the future. Individual bull sharks that we want to track are selected and fed an individually coded transmitter; these animals are picked up whenever they swim within range of one of the receiver units. The results of this study will give an insight into the small-scale movement patterns in addition to giving us an idea of the time of day or night individual bull sharks visit the different reefs.
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Beqa Adventure Divers Phone: +(679) 3450-911 Fax: +(679) 3450-901
