Saving the Grey Nurse
"Spot a Shark" Project Helps Preserve Endangered Grey Nurse Sharks
Sharks have been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. But one shark, the Grey Nurse, at one time thought to be a man eater because of its ferocious appearance, has already been hunted almost to extinction.
Now a group of divers, conservationists and scientists have launched an initiative which will help locate, identify and stabilise the remaining population of this endangered species at popular dive sites along the NSW east coast.
Once prolific, the population of Grey Nurse sharks is now diminished to the point where recovery of the species is in doubt, say scientists. Though killing Grey Nurse sharks has been banned for more than 10 years, their numbers continue to decline. A NSW Department of Fisheries survey in 2000 revealed that the number of Grey Nurse sharks in NSW could be as low as 292 individuals.
Because key habitat sites for Grey Nurse sharks are often favoured fishing sites, incidental and illegal capture by commercial and recreational fishing, which often occurs where these placid animals gather to breed and feed, has gradually caused their numbers to decline at a rate that cannot be sustained.
“Spot a Shark” is a non-profit dive community research project that has been established in conjunction with the Marine Ecology Group at Macquarie University and is supported by the NSW Department of Primary Industries and private donations.
The group is asking members of the dive community to send in their photos of Grey Nurse sharks to help catalogue the population along the east coast. Marine biologists at Macquarie University plan to use a computer based software program to identify individual sharks and ultimately learn more about the species.
The role of the Grey Nurse shark in the ecosystem is poorly understood, says Dr Jane Williamson, head of the University’s Marine Ecology Group.
“We have no idea what the flow-on effects are in terms of marine species community and ecosystem level changes if Grey Nurse sharks disappear, so this project is vital,” Williamson says.
Identifying a grey nurse shark is easier than it seems thanks to a series of pigmentation spots on either side of the shark’s body. Like human fingerprints, the markings are unique to each shark, says Sean Barker, a Marine Ecology Group student, who has been conducting research on Grey Nurse sharks for more than three years and is leading the “Spot a Shark” project.
Barker’s research will ultimately be used to set appropriate distances for divers that both allow them to see the sharks yet help reduce the stress on the remaining shark population. Currently there are approximately 13 Grey Nurse shark critical habitat sites along the east coast of Australia.
“We’ll be working closely with the dive community and will report our results back to them. We hope to develop upgraded dive protocols that will benefit all the stakeholders and ensure sustainability of the species,” he says.
Any enquiries from the media should be directed to:
Lyn Danninger phone: (02) 9850 7257
Email address: lyn.danninger@pru.mq.edu.au
Credits: Photo by Peter Simpson
Publish Date: 11 Mar 2009