CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The draughtboard shark Cephaloscyllium laticeps is the most common catshark in coastal areas of southern Australia. However, nothing is known on the behaviour of this species. A combination of passive tracking and conventional tagging was used to provide insight into the movement patterns of this species. A series of acoustic receivers were deployed in southeastern Tasmania, and along an isolated reef (CPR). Twenty five sharks were passively tracked between January to July 2003. Sharks were present from 4 to 98 days. The majority of the sharks stayed within the isolated reef where most individuals were active throughout the night. By linking habitat characteristics and shark presences, it was found that high profile reef was the habitat preferred by sharks to actively move and to spend periods of minor activity. The length of these minor activity periods, observed both day and night, ranged from 1 hour to five days. Between January 2000 and April 2007, a total of 1552 conventionally tagged sharks were released in the eastern and southwestern coastal areas of Tasmania, and within the CPR. The CPR showed a higher recapture rate, 38%, than eastern and southwestern areas where the recapture rate was 10% and 3% respectively. Within the CPR, 36% of the sharks were recaptured on multiple occasions, while no multiple recaptures were found in the eastern and southwestern areas. However, the frequency and intensity of fishing effort in the CPR was higher than in any other area. The maximum time at liberty ranged from one month to seven years. The majority of the sharks were recaptured in the vicinity of where they were released although larger longer-term movements of up to 300 km have been recorded. The large amount of multiple recaptures within the isolated reef, in addition to acoustic tagging results, indicated a high degree of site fidelity for C. laticeps.

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