Female wound records suggest mating periods for the Caribbean reef shark at an insular marine protected area from the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean
Despite being one of the most abundant, economically-significant, reef-associated shark species, little is known about the reproductive aspects of the Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi). In the present study we report the first evidence of mating wounds and scars in female Caribbean reef sha...
Published in: | Journal of Fish Biology |
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Main Authors: | , , |
Other Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Wiley
2022
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10754/681030 https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.15212 |
Summary: | Despite being one of the most abundant, economically-significant, reef-associated shark species, little is known about the reproductive aspects of the Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi). In the present study we report the first evidence of mating wounds and scars in female Caribbean reef sharks at the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, a remote Marine Protected Area from the South Atlantic Ocean. Data from five females suggest this species mates mainly during the austral summer, between February and March. Given that the archipelago has been previously described as a nursery ground for the Caribbean reef shark, these results add information about the reproductive cycle of this species in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. We are grateful to Fundo Nacional para Biodiversidade (FUNBIO), Instituto Humanize (#98/2019), and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo-FAPESP (#2017/25273-0) for their support. We also thank the professor Fabio Hazin for all his support in this project, and for being great inspiration for Brazilian shark research. We also grateful to the Ricardo Araujo from Núcleo de Gestão Integrada de Noronha- NGI Noronha/ICMBio (Instituto Chico Mendes para a Conservação da Biodiversidade) and his team for all their support. We also thank Leonardo Veras and the fishermen Carlinhos Gomes, Tio Nãna and Weliton da Silva for their invaluable field assistance. |
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