Nursery Delineation, Movement Patterns, and Migration of the Sandbar Shark, Carcharhinus Plumbeus, in the Eastern Shore of Virginia Coastal Bays and Lagoons
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W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2005 Nursery delineation, movement patterns, and migration of the sandbar shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus, in the eastern shore of Virginia coastal bays and lagoons Christina L. Conrath College of William and Mary - Virginia Institute of Marine Science Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Fresh Water Studies Commons, Marine Biology Commons, Oceanography Commons, and the Zoology Commons Recommended Citation Conrath, Christina L., "Nursery delineation, movement patterns, and migration of the sandbar shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus, in the eastern shore of Virginia coastal bays and lagoons" (2005). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539616618. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25773/v5-tgsx-ea94 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NURSERY DELINEATION, MOVEMENT PATTERNS, AND MIGRATION OF THE SANDBAR SHARK, Carcharhinus plumbeus, IN THE EASTERN SHORE OF VIRGINIA COASTAL BAYS AND LAGOONS A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the School of Marine Science The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Christina L. Conrath 2005 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of The requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy g>-~ Approved, December 2005 Musick,vPh.D. Committee Chairman/Advisor ^Davm A. Evan^PhT)- . Graves, Ph.D. Mark W. Luckenbach/fh.J l - U Z f Michelle R. Heup Mote Marine Laboratory Sarasota, Florida 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS............................................................................................ IV LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................... V LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................VI ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................VIII INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................ 2 CHAPTER 1 INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE WINTER HABITAT OF JUVENILE SANDBAR SHARKS USING POP-UP ARCHIVAL SATELLITE TELEMETRY...................................................................................................................7 A b s t r a c t .......................................................................................................................................................8 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 9 M e t h o d s ......................................................................................................................................................12 R e s u l t s ........................................................................................................................................................ 15 D is c u s s i o n ................................................................................................................................................. 25 CHAPTER 2 A DELINEATION OF THE EASTERN SHORE OF VIRGINIA SUMMER NURSERY HABITAT OF JUVENILE SANDBAR SHARKS 30 A b s t r a c t .................................................................................................................................................... 31 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................32 M e t h o d s ..................................................................................................................................................... 36 R e s u l t s ........................................................................................................................................................4 0 D is c u s s i o n ................................................................................................................................................. 54 CHAPTER 3 INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE ACTIVITY PATTERNS AND SPACE USE OF JUVENILE SANDBAR SHARKS IN THE EASTERN SHORE OF VIRGINIA SUMMER NURSERY AREA.......................................................... 66 A b s t r a c t ....................................................................................................................................................67 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................68 M e t h o d s ..................................................................................................................................................... 75 Re s u l t s ........................................................................................................................................................84 D is c u s s i o n ............................................................................................................................................... 120 CONCLUSIONS...........................................................................................................128 APPENDIX 1.................................................................................................................132 LITERATURE CITED...............................................................................................132 VITA................................................................................................................................148 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the following individuals who have participated in and contributed to the success of this project. First and foremost I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Jack Musick, for providing excellent guidance and support throughout the course of my graduate education. Working as a member of the VIMS shark team has been an amazing experience. I would also like to thank the rest of my graduate committee members: John Graves, David Evans, Mark Luckenbach, and Michelle Heupel for their support and guidance through the completion of this project. In particular, I would like to thank Mark for the use of the facilities at the Eastern Shore Laboratory, the members of the lab have been an amazing resource. I would like to thank Michelle for a significant amount of advice, support, and encouragement regarding the design of the acoustic portion of this project and the subsequent data analysis. I would like to thank the members of the Eastern Shore Laboratory for a huge amount of assistance in the design and execution of this project. I would like to thank Reade Bonniwell for equipment construction and a number of very quick boat, truck, and equipment repairs. I would like to extend gratitude to Gretchen Arnold for providing water quality analysis assistance and sharing Eastern Shore maps and charts. I would like to thank Alan Birch and Edward Smith for many (many!) hours in the field. In particular, I would like to thank Sean Fate and PG Ross without whom this project would not have been possible. Sean spent a huge number of hours in the field and large amount of time and effort providing logistical support to this project (not to mention wings on the grill!). PG was responsible for getting this project from the planning to the execution stage. Without his knowledge of sampling techniques, local water ways, and many hours of planning this project would not have been possible. I would also like to thank several scientists working outside VIMS for their assistance with data collection and analysis. I would like to thank Colin Simpfendorfer for many hours of assistance analyzing data. I would like to thank Dewayne Fox and Hal Brundage for sharing acoustic data collected in Delaware Bay. The data from Delaware Bay has been an invaluable addition to the results of this project. I would like to thank many, many people at VIMS for their support. I would like to thank the members of the shark team including, Josh Smith, Lenny Pace, Jason Romine, Todd Gedamke, Dave Portnoy, Chip Cotton, and Dan Ha. In particular I would like to thank Josh Smith for many, many hours in the field assisting with the execution of this project, for his excellent de-algaeing skills, and for maintaining the equipment throughout the end of the project. Technical support and large amounts of patience were provided by, Gail Reardon, Cindy Forrester, Katherine Davis-Small, Jane Lopez, Kevin Kiley, Chris Bonzek, and many others. Moral support was provided by the ‘poker ladies’, Kate Mansfield, Donna Bilkovic, Julie Herman, Roy Pemberton, and many many others. I would lastly like to thank the members of my family for a tremendous amount of support throughout the years. iv Reproduced with