Movement and Behavioural Patterns of Whale Sharks at Ningaloo Reef: The Implications for Tourism.

To determine Whale Shark numbers at Ningaloo Marine Park by working with whale shark industry videographers to collect footage - part of the Whale Shark Management Program.

The use of baited videos enabled non-destructive sampling of a vast variety (228 species) of fishes, sharks, rays and sea snakes below the limits of safe SCUBA diving. No localised nests of species richness and diversity were detected, but sightings for 42% of all species were restricted to one or other particular area of the six areas surveyed. On average, this restriction to single areas occurred for 53% of the families sighted. About 50% of butterfly fish species were restricted in their distributions to one particular area and this family had important leverage in forcing the community patterns. Two major groupings, and one further, minor grouping, of fish communities were recognised in the Lagoon the seaward lagoon margins, the inner, central lagoon, and a further split away by 2 locations in the innermost lagoon.

This dataset describes the predicted occurrence of juvenile sharks around Northwest Australia, mapped over a 0.01 degree spatial grid. Juvenile sharks were mapped at two taxonomic levels: order by including all juvenile sharks sampled (all juveniles) and species by considering the three most abundant species sampled separately (grey reef (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos), sandbar (Carcharhinus plumbeus), and whitetip reef (Triaenodon obesus) sharks). The data cover the period 2003-2013 and are derived from an analysis of count data derived from baited remote underwater videos deployed through various sampling programs. Further detail can be found in the following peer-reviewed publication: Oh, BZL, Sequeira, AMM, Meekan, MG, Ruppert, JLW and Meeuwig, JJ (2017), Predicting occurrence of juvenile shark habitat to improve conservation planning. Conservation Biology, 31: 635–645. doi:10.1111/cobi.12868 Below is a full list of species, with contributions to the total counted (%): Silvertip shark / Carcharhinus albimarginatus – 4.14% Grey reef shark / Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos – 28.06% Bronze whaler / Carcharhinus brachyurus – 0.18% Galapagos shark / Carcharhinus galapagensis – 0.09% Bull shark / Carcharhinus leucas – 0.18% Common-Australian blacktip shark / Carcharhinus limbatus-C.tilstoni – 1.38% Blacktip reef shark / Carcharhinus melanopterus – 1.56% Sandbar shark / Carcharhinus plumbeus – 4.78% Spot-tail shark / Carcharhinus sorrah – 0.18% Tiger shark / Galeocerdo cuvier – 2.39% Sliteye-Sharpnose shark / Loxodon macrorhinus-Rhizoprionodon spp. – 6.35% Lemon shark / Negaprion acutidens – 1.01% Whitetip reef shark / Triaenodon obesus – 18.95% Tawny shark / Nebrius ferrugineus – 0.83% Grey carpetshark / Chiloscyllium punctatum – 1.38% Taselled wobbegong / Eucrossorhinus dasypogon – 0.09% Scalloped hammerhead / Sphyrna lewini – 0.46% Great hammerhead / Sphyrna mokarran – 3.86% Zebra shark / Stegostoma fasciatum – 0.83% Sicklefin houndshark / Hemitriakis falcata – 1.01% Grey gummy shark / Mustelus ravidus – 0.28% Archived BRUVS video files used in this study are the intellectual property of multiple institutions and industry partners and are not published in this record. See credits for further information.

This project investigates foraging behavior of Hawaiian monk seals by conducting telemetry studies. During these studies, live seals are instrumented with dive recorders, crittercams, and other instruments to determine foraging locations and dive and foraging behavior.

Observers are required to take photos and/or videos of all incidentally caught sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds and unusual or rare fish. On the first 3 observed trips observers are also required to take photos of all fish they encounter for the first time.

Baited Remote Underwater Videos (BRUVs) were captured in the Cobourg Marine Park from 1-12 December, 2016. Deployments were spaced more than 400m apart, two within the multiple use management zone at Airport Beach and one outside the park at Orontes Reef. A total of 77 videos were captured at 60min periods. One video was excluded from analysis due to severely obstructed view. Benthic habitat was analysed via a screen shot of the video, processed by online software BenthoBox to provide percentage cover based on the Catami classification system. Relative abundance of Elasmobranch species were identified using EventMeasure. MaxN was defined as the maximum number of one species seen in the field of vie at one time per deployment.

Design of aerial surveys to determine the distribution and abundance of Whale Sharks in the Ningaloo Marine Park.

Observers are required to take photos and/or videos of all incidentally caught sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds and unusual or rare fish. On the first 3 observed trips observers are also required to take photos of all fish they encounter for the first time.