Real Sharks Of Long Island

Over the past few months, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which oversees the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, New York Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo and the Queens Zoo, released a news brief in its membership newsletter about the discovery of a sand tiger shark nursery off the coast of Long Island. Now, most people can figure out on their own that Long Island is surrounded by the ocean and sharks live in the ocean. But shark news to Long Islanders is still a foreign observation.

“Scientists and veterinarians working for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium discovered them [sand tiger sharks] in near-shore waters of Long Island’s Great South Bay,” said Wildlife Conservation Society Vice President and Director of the New York Aquarium Jon Dohlin. “The discovery was made by researchers who have collected a wealth of information on sharks in local waters over the past four years through the use of acoustic tags, devices that enable scientists to remotely track marine animals as they swim through their environment.

The research team received the first indications of a potential nursery ground in Great South Bay in 2011 when one of the scientists received a picture of a dead juvenile sand tiger shark from one of the marinas. Follow-up conversations with local anglers and boaters revealed that people had been catching these small sharks in the bay for years. The scientists then initiated the tagging study using acoustic transmitters in Great South Bay and have been catching and releasing only juvenile sharks since that time.

Sand tiger sharks inhabit subtropical and temperate waters worldwide, specifically near Japan, Australia, South Africa, the Mediterranean and the east coasts of North and South America. They inhabit the continental shelf, from sandy shorelines and submerged reefs to a depth of around 627 feet.

Despite its name, it is not related to the tiger shark; however, it is a cousin of the great white shark. This species has a sharp, pointy head, and a bulky body, reaching approximately 10 feet in length.

Although the sand tiger shark has a fearsome appearance and strong swimming ability, it is a relatively placid and slow-moving shark with no confirmed human fatalities. Their diet consists of bony fish, crustaceans, squid, skates and other sharks.

Dohlin said, “Sharks have more to fear from us than we do of them; tens of millions of sharks are killed each year for food and other products.” WCS-supported research found that the fins of 26-73 million sharks annually enter international trade. The annual fishing mortality of skates and rays, close relatives of sharks with similar biological traits (making them easy to overfish and slow to recover), may be even higher.

Sand tiger sharks are the most widely kept large shark in public aquariums because of their tolerance for captivity.

“The Great South Bay is not protected and a great deal of boating, recreational fishing, dredging, and other human activities take place there,” said Dohlin. “Our WCS New York Aquarium researchers are working to learn more about habitat use and the timing of sand tiger migrations, information that can help guide us in order to protect the sharks.”

Recreational and commercial fishing for sand tiger sharks is prohibited locally and in all state and federal waters.

WCS scientists have found no indication of shark nesting; the “shark nursery” refers to specific sites where juveniles gather. There are still many unknowns about the nursery off the coast of Long Island.

“Scientists are not sure how much of the bay is used by these sharks, the number of young sharks in the bay each summer, or what the sharks are eating,” said Dohlin. “More work is being done, including health studies, to address these and other questions.” Data gathered from the sharks’ movements are helping scientists learn more about the migratory behavior of sand tiger sharks and their habitat needs.

WCS and other organizations are doing outreach to the public, especially anglers, to help improve the conservation status of sand tiger and other local sharks and rays.

This sand tiger work in the Great South Bay is part of an initiative by WCS’s NY Seascape program based out of the New York Aquarium to study and protect sharks and rays in the New York Bight, the region between Long Island’s Montauk Point and New Jersey’s Cape May that extends out to the continental shelf and over the Hudson Canyon. More than 40 species of sharks and rays are known to occur in these waters.

Want to know more about WCS’s efforts to protect the oceans? Visit www.wcs.org for more.

Also check out www.blueyork.org to read more about the New York Aquarium’s local efforts. There, you can also learn more about what you can do to help conservation and protecting the ocean.