Abstract
The Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi), an abundant coral-reef-associated apex predator, is one of the most economically and ecologically important, yet least studied species of large shark in the greater Caribbean region. The relative abundance and population structure of C. perezi off Cape Eleuthera, The Bahamas, was surveyed by standardised longline surveys from May 2008 to October 2011, which resulted in the capture of 331 sharks. Abundance peaked in the summer and was lowest during the winter. Females were 1.6 times more abundant than males and the assemblage was dominated by immature female sharks (45.5 %). The abundance of mature male and female sharks peaked a month apart in June and August, respectively. All 331 sharks were tagged and released with 15.4 % being recaptured after periods at liberty between 5 and 1,159 days (Mean = 333.4 ± 42.7 SE). The mean distance between tagging and recapture was 1.77 km for recaptures in excess of 6 months, indicating seasonally stratified philopatry in this species. C. perezi inhabiting Bahamian waters have developed complex habitat use patterns that are both spatiotemporally and demographically segregated, most probably in response to the large and diverse habitat mosaic available on the Bahamas Banks compared to contemporary study sites. This study represents an important step in understanding the spatiotemporal population structure of C. perezi and illustrates the potential for studies examining behavioural plasticity in response to environmental variation and anthropogenic disturbance.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amorim AF, Arfelli CA, Fagundes L (1998) Pelagic elasmobranchs caught by longliners off southern Brazil during 1974–1997: an overview. Mar Freshw Res 49:621–632
Arocha F, Arocha O, Marcano LA (2002) Observed shark bycatch from the Venezuelan tuna and swordfish fishery from 1994 through 2000. Col VolSci Pap ICCAT 54:1123–1131
Awruch CA, Frusher SD, Pankhurst ND, Stevens JD (2008) Non-lethal assessment of reproductive characteristics for management and conservation of sharks. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 355:277–285
Barnett A, Abrantes KG, Seymour J, Fitzpatrick R (2012) Residency and spatial use by reef sharks of an isolated seamount and its implications for conservation. PLoS ONE 7(5):e36574
Bascompte J, Melian CJ, Sala E (2005) Interaction strength combinations and the overfishing of a marine food web. Proc Natl Acad Sci 102:5443–5447
Bejarano S, Mumby PJ, Sotheran I (2010) Predicting structural complexity of reefs and fish abundance using acoustic remote sensing (RoxAnn). Mar Biol 158:489–504
Bond ME, Babcock EA, Pikitch EK, Abercrombie DL, Lamb NF, Chapman DD (2012) Reef sharks exhibit site-fidelity and higher relative abundance in marine reserves on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. PLoS ONE 7(3):e32983
Box GEP, Cox DR (1964) An analysis of transformations. J Roy Statist Soc B 26:211–234
Brooks EJ, Sloman KA, Sims DW, Danylchuk AJ (2011) Validating the use of baited remote underwater video surveys for assessing the diversity, distribution and abundance of sharks in the Bahamas. Endang Species Res 13:231–243
Buchan KC (2000) The Bahamas. Mar Pol Bull 41:94–111
Carlson JK, Baremore IE (2003) Changes in biological parameters of Atlantic sharpnose shark Rhizoprionodon terraenovae in the Gulf of Mexico: evidence for density-dependent growth and maturity? Mar Freshw Res 54:227–234
Castro J (2011) The Sharks of North America. Oxford University Press, New York
Chapman DD, Pikitch EK, Babcock EA, Shivji MS (2005) Marine reserve design and evaluation using automated acoustic telemetry: a case-study involving coral reef associated sharks in the Mesoamerican Caribbean. Mar Technol Soc J 39:42–53
Chapman DD, Pikitch EK, Babcock EA, Shivji MS (2007) Deep-diving and diel changes in vertical habitat use by Caribbean reef sharks Carcharhinus perezi. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 344:271–275
Cline W (2008) Shark diving overview for the islands of The Bahamas. Economic report prepared for the Bahamas Dive Association and the Ministry of Tourism. p 36
Colin PL (1995) Surface currents in Exuma Sound, Bahamas and adjacent areas with reference to potential larval transport. Bull Mar Sci 56:48–57
Compagno LJV (1984) Sharks of the world—An annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date. Part 2. Carcharhiniformes. FAO species catalogue. 4:251–655
Dingle H (1996) Migration: the biology of life on the move. Oxford University Press, New York
Driggers WB, Hoffmayer ER, Hickkerson EL, Martin TL, Gledhill CT (2011) Validating the occurrence of Caribbean reef sharks, Carcharhinus perezi (Poey), (Chondrichthyes: Carcharhiniformes) in the northern Gulf of Mexico, with a key for sharks of the family Carcharhinidae inhabiting the region. Zootaxa 2933:65–68
Dudley SFJ, Cliff G (2010) Influence of the annual sardine run on catches of large sharks in the protective gillnets off KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and the occurrence of sardine in shark diet. Afr J Mar Sci 32:383–397
Feldheim KA, Gruber SH, Ashley MV (2002) The breeding biology of lemon sharks at a tropical nursery lagoon. Proc Roy Soc B 269:1655–1661
Ferretti F, Worm B, Britten GL, Heithaus MR, Lotze HK (2010) Patterns and ecosystem consequences of shark declines in the ocean. Ecol Lett 13:1055–1071
Field IC, Meekan MG, Buckworth RC, Bradshaw CJA (2009) Susceptibility of sharks, rays and chimaeras to global extinction. Adv Mar Biol 56:275–363
Fletcher D, Faddy M (2007) Confidence intervals for expected abundance of rare species. J Agric Biol Environ Stat 12:315–324
Fletcher D, Mackenzie D, Villouta E (2005) Modelling skewed data with many zeros: a simple approach combining ordinary and logistic regression. Environ Ecol Stat 12:45–54
Gallagher AJ, Hammerschlag N (2011) Global shark currency: the distribution, frequency, and economic value of shark ecotourism. Curr Issues Tour 14:797–812
Garla RC, Chapman DD, Wetherbee BM, Shivji MS (2006a) Movement patterns of young Caribbean reef sharks, Carcharhinus perezi, at Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Brazil: the potential of marine protected areas for conservation of a nursery ground. Mar Biol 149:189–199
Garla RC, Chapman DD, Shivji MS, Wetherbee BM, Amorim AF (2006b) Habitat of juvenile Caribbean reef sharks, Carcharhinus perezi, at two oceanic insular marine protected areas in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean: Fernando de Noronha Archipelago and Atol das Rocas, Brazil. Fish Res 81:236–247
Guttridge TL, Gruber SH, Franks BR, Kessel ST, Gledhill KS, Uphill J, Krause J, Sims DW (2012) Deep danger: intra-specific predation risk influences habitat use and aggregation formation of juvenile lemon sharks Negaprion brevirostris. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 445:279–291
Hayes RL, Goreau TJ (2008) Satellite-derived sea surface temperature from Caribbean and Atlantic coral reef sites, 1984-2003. Rev Biol Trop 56:97–118
Heithaus MR (2001) The biology of tiger sharks, Galeocerdo cuvier, in Shark Bay, Western Australia: sex ratio, size distribution, diet, and seasonal changes in catch rates. Environ Biol Fish 61:25–36
Heithaus MR, Frid A, Wirsing AJ, Worm B (2008) Predicting ecological consequences of marine top predator declines. Trends Ecol Evol 23:202–210
Heupel MR, Simpfendorfer CA (2010) Science or slaughter: need for lethal sampling of sharks. Cons Biol 24:1212–1218
Heupel MR, Simpfendorfer CA, Fitzpatrick R (2010) Large-scale movement and reef fidelity of grey reef sharks. PLoS ONE 5(3):e9650
Hueter RE, Heupel MR, Heist EJ, Keeney DB (2005) Evidence of philopatry in sharks and implications for the management of shark fisheries. J Northw Atl Fish Sci 35:239–247
Keeney DB, Heupel MR, Hueter RE, Heist EJ (2005) Microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA analyses of the genetic structure of blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) nurseries in the north western Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. Mol Ecol 14:1911–1923
Maljković A, Côté IM (2011) Effects of tourism-related provisioning on the trophic signatures and movement patterns of an apex predator, the Caribbean reef shark. Biol Cons 144:859–865
Martin TG, Wintle BA, Rhodes JR, Kuhnert PM, Field SA, Low-Choy SJ, Tyre AJ, Possingham HP (2005) Zero tolerance ecology: improving ecological inference by modelling the source of zero observations. Ecol Lett 8:1235–1246
Morgan A, Cooper PW, Curtis T, Burgess GH (2009) Overview of the U.S. east coast bottom longline shark fishery, 1994–2003. Mar Fish Rev 71:23–38
Mucientes GR, Queiroz N, Sousa LL, Tarroso P, Sims DW (2009) Sexual segregation of pelagic sharks and the potential threat from fisheries. Biol Lett 5:156–159
Nakagawa S (2004) A farewell to Bonferroni: the problems of low statistical power and publication bias. Behav Ecol 15:1044–1045
Norman B, Stevens JD (2007) Size and maturity status of the whale shark (Rhincodontypus) at Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia. Fish Res 84:81–86
Opitz S (1996) Trophic interactions in Caribbean coral reefs. ICLARM Tech.Rep. 43, p 341
Papastamatiou YP, Caselle JE, Friedlander AM, Lowe CG (2009) Distribution, size frequency, and sex ratios of blacktip reef sharks Carcharhinus melanopterus at Palmyra Atoll: a predator-dominated ecosystem. J Fish Biol 75:647–654
Perneger T (1998) What’s wrong with Bonferroni adjustments? Br Med J 316:1236–1238
Pikitch EK, Chapman DD, Babcock EA, Shivji MS (2005) Habitat use and demographic population structure of elasmobranchs at a Caribbean atoll (Glover’s Reef, Belize). Mar Ecol Prog Ser 302:187–197
Pratt HL, Carrier JC (2001) A review of elasmobranch reproductive behaviour with a case study in the nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum. Env Biol Fish 60:157–188
Rankey EC, Reeder SL (2011) Holocene oolitic marine sand complexes of the Bahamas. J Sediment Res A 81:97–117
Rollin BE, Kessel ML (1998) Guidelines for the treatment of animals in behavioural research and teaching. Anim Behav 55:251–257
Rosa RS, Mancini P, Caldas JP, Graham RT (2006) Carcharhinus perezi. IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded 27th June 2012
Rothman KJ (1990) No adjustments are needed for multiple comparisons. Epidemiology 1:43–46
Simpfendorfer C, Hueter R, Bergman U, Connett S (2002) Results of a fishery-independent survey for pelagic sharks in the western North Atlantic, 1977–1994. Fish Res 55:175–192
Sims DW (2005) Differences in habitat selection and reproductive strategies of male and female sharks. In: Ruckstuhl KE, Neuhaus P (eds) Sexual segregation in vertebrates: ecology of the two sexes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 127–147
Southwood T, Henderson P (2000) Ecological methods. Blackwell Science, Oxford
Speed CW, Field IC, Meekan MG, Bradshaw CJA (2012) Complexities of coastal shark movements and their implications for management. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 408:275–293
Springer S (1967) Social organisation in shark populations. In: Gilbert PW, Mathewson RF, Rall DP (eds) Sharks, skates and rays. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, pp 149–174
Stallings CD (2009) Fishery-independent data reveal negative effect of human population density on Caribbean predatory fish communities. PLoS ONE 4(5):e5333
Sulikowski JA, Driggers WB, Ingram W, Kneebone J, Ferguson DE, Tsang PCW (2007) Profiling plasma steroid hormones: a non-lethal approach for the study of skate reproductive biology and its potential use in conservation management. Environ Biol Fish 80:285–292
Tavares R (2009) Fishery biology of the Caribbean reef sharks, Carcharhinus perezi (Poey, 1876), in a Caribbean insular platform: Los Roques Archipelago National Park, Venezuela. Panam J Aquat Sci 4:500–512
Tillett BJ, Meekan MG, Field IC, Thorburn DC, Ovenden JR (2012) Evidence for reproductive philopatry in the bull shark Carcharhinus leucas. J Fish Biol 80:2140–2158
Ward-Paige CA, Mora C, Lotze HK, Pattengill-Semmens C, McClenachan L, Arias-Castro E, Myers RA (2010) Large-scale absence of sharks on reefs in the greater-Caribbean: a footprint of human pressures. PLoS ONE 5(8):e11968
Ward-Paige CA, Keith DM, Worm B, Lotze HK (2012) Recovery potential and conservation options for elasmobranchs. J Fish Biol 80:1844–1869
Wirsing AJ, Heithaus MR, Dill LM (2006) Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) abundance and growth in a subtropical embayment: evidence from 7 years of standardized fishing effort. Mar Biol 149:961–968
Zar JH (1984) Biostatistical analysis, 2nd edn. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the numerous hard-working volunteers including, but not limited to, A. Brooks, A. Shultz, I. Hamilton, C. Berry, J. Wilchcombe, A. Vellacott, B. Maxey, N. Weeden, J. Spät, G. Nanninga, K. Sherman, M. Anderson, C. Booker, L. Hassan-Hassanein and J. Searle. Thanks must also go to the hard-working Island School shark research students of 2007, 2008 and 2009 who also provided invaluable field support. Additional thanks must go to A. Harbourne at the University of Queensland for sharing his experience with zero-inflated data sets. This work would not have been possible without the financial support of the Save Our Seas Foundation and the Cape Eleuthera Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by J. D. R. Houghton.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brooks, E.J., Sims, D.W., Danylchuk, A.J. et al. Seasonal abundance, philopatry and demographic structure of Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi) assemblages in the north-east Exuma Sound, The Bahamas. Mar Biol 160, 2535–2546 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-013-2246-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-013-2246-0