Gulf of Alaska | Fishes and Fish Habitats UNDERGRADUATE POSTER PRESENTATION
Movement ecology of sleeper sharks in Prince William Sound Presenter: Nadia Barcelona , nbbarcelona@alaska.edu, University of Alaska Anchorage Amy Bishop , ambishop2@alaska.edu, University of Alaska Anchorage Julie Nielsen , julie.nielse@gmail.com, Kingfisher Marine Research Markus Horning , markus@wildlifetechnologyfrontiers.com, Wildlife Technology Frontiers
Sleeper sharks ( Somniosis pacifcus ) are an understudied species, although they have been bycatch in the Alaskan fishing industry for many years. Most information regarding sleeper sharks is taken from research done on the closely related species Somniosus microcephalus (the Greenland shark). Many elements such as population size and dynamics, behavior, movement ecology, and their potential impact on the ecosystem remain unknown. By tagging these animals with pop-up archival transmitters and acoustic tags, we can get a basic understanding of the sharks’ movement behavior and start to see patterns in the sharks’ habitat use, including whether they return to the same place each year. I started working on this project over the Summer of 2022, as a UAA biological sciences student interning for Wildlife Technology Frontiers. Throughout the summer, the team caught, measured, and tagged 16 sleeper sharks over 29 days in multiple locations within Prince William Sound. When combined with previous years’ data from an additional 12 sharks, we can start to identify patterns in individual characteristics, movements and habitat use. To date, there has never been a recapture of any individual, and the body morphologies of all the caught individuals seem to be diverse. We have observed slightly more early premature pop-ups from this year’s tags than in previous years. If we can collect these tags, they can give us more information about the specific movements an individual shark is making. Sharks caught in PWS had a higher incidence of scarring and previous injuries relative to prior shark data. These could be related to higher interactions with fishing gear in the area, and the lack of shark recaptures may indicate a large population size. However, there is not enough information to complete any quantitative analyses at this stage. This study will provide valuable insights into Pacific sleeper shark movement and ecology, needed to better understand the ecological role of this species.
Alaska Marine Science Symposium 2023 193
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