Volume 66
A Land Based Monitoring Technique to Study the Abundance and the Distribution of Lemon Sharks Juveniles (Negaprion brevirostris) in the Nature Reserve of the Islets of Petite Terre (Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles)
Authors
Beaufort, O., S. Bedel, F. Mazéas, and C. Bouchon Download PDF Open PDF in BrowserOther Information
Date: November, 2013
Pages: 528
Event: Proceedings of the Sixty six Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
City: Corpus Christy
Country: USA
Abstract
Observations of lemon sharks are becoming nowadays more frequent in the Réserve Naturelle de Petite Terre in Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles). The purpose of this study was to set up a monitoring protocol to answer the questions on the distribution and the abundance of juvenile lemon sharks, taking into account the environmental characteristics of the studied site (no mangrove and presence of beach rock). The tracking protocol developed is new for shark survey. The principle is to walk along the shore around the islets (referred transect) and to record each observation of juvenile sharks. In addition, sharks were captured to be marked with external tags able to be identified by visual information in the field. Preliminary results showed the presence of 19 juvenile lemon sharks around the islet of Terre-de-Bas. These indi-viduals, from different age groups, were observed along the transect (except in one site). However, the tagging of 15 individuals has revealed that each juvenile used specific home ranges that vary in size and location. This protocol will soon be used in other sites such as the Island of Saint-Martin.