Prickly Sharks in the Monterey Canyon (2005-2009)
Cyndi Dawson, a recent MLML graduate student, completed her thesis project investing the Prickly shark, Echinorhinus cookei, movement and habitat use in the Monterey Canyon
Between March and August 2005, fifteen subadult prickly sharks (Echinorhinus cookei), from 170 – 270 cm TL were tagged with acoustic tags in the Monterey Canyon. The movements and activity patterns of 10 female and 5 males were examined using manual tracking and acoustic monitoring techniques. One female and 2 male sharks were tracked manually for 51.8, 61.0, and 62.8 h. Occurrence of those sharks and one other female was recorded for 101.2 – 123.6 d. An array of non-overlapping receivers extending 3.5 km offshore recorded the occurrence of five females and 3 male sharks for 400 – 561 d. Also, 3 female sharks were tagged with archival transmitters. All tagged sharks demonstrated a pronounced diel movement pattern, moving offshore to discrete areas during day and moving inshore along the axis of the canyon and actively swimming off the bottom at night. Subadult prickly sharks tagged in this study were present in the upper reaches of the Monterey Canyon during all four seasons.
Dawson, C.L. and R.M. Starr. 2009. Movements of subadult prickly sharks, Echinorhinus cookei, in the Monterey Canyon. Marine Ecology Progress Series. Vol 386: 253-262.