Feeling Stressed?

Small scale longline surveys are the predominant method for investigating shark populations, and when longlines are implemented on a much larger scale, are responsible for the widespread commercial harvest of sharks all over the world. Any capture event, including longline capture, unleashes series of physiological and physical disturbances, the issue is that very little is know about how this physiological stress impacts the behaviour of an animal post release, or if indeed the animal survives.

This year’s project took a two stage approach to begin to investigate the effects of longline capture on the Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi).  Firstly, blood samples were taken from sharks that were captured during our longline surveys, using hook timers to accurately determine the amount of time the shark had been on the line.  Blood was taken from the shark and portable blood analysers were used to quantify various blood chemistry parameters which in turn indicate the level of physiological stress the shark was under for a given duration of hooking.  Secondly, a subset of fifteen sharks were equipped with acoustic transmitters which emit an ultrasonic series of pings every 45 seconds which can be detected by an array of underwater hydrophones.  These transmitters had a three-dimensional accelerometer incorporated into the tag which measured the activity level of the shark every 20 seconds post release, the data for which was in turn transmitted and stored on the seabed hydrophones.  The hydrophone array itself consisted of 32 receivers covering approximately 14 square kilometres of seabed in prime reef shark habitat.  The use of these transmitters allowed us to quantify the activity level, depth association and movement patterns of the Caribbean reef sharks post release and begin to understand how capture events might impact their behaviour.

The project officially drew to a close in November 2009 after taking blood from over forty Caribbean reef sharks and collecting approximately 33,500 detections  from the accelerometers attached to them.  The shark research team is currently collating the results which will be presented at the annual American Elasmobranch Society meeting in Rhode Island in July 2010.  The team will take part in a special symposium entitled The Physiological Stress Responses in Elasmobranch Fishes organised by Dr. Greg Skomal of Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and Dr. John Mandelman of the New England Aquarium.