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Soupfin sharks schooling in the shallows off La Jolla, Calif. Scripps and USD researcher Andy Nosal found that these sharks return to the same warm waters every three years, presumably to help gestate their embryos. Credit: Trystan Snodgrass
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By UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – SAN DIEGO
Shark researcher Andy Nosal has documented the first conclusive evidence in any animal of triennial philopatry, a term referring to the periodic return of an animal to the same location….
view more Credit: Trystan Snodgrass A seven-year study of California’s soupfin sharks sheds light on their migration and reproductive cycles, laying the groundwork for potential management strategies amid conservation concerns.
The findings were published March 3 in the Journal of Applied Ecology by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and the University of San Diego (USD).
Analyzing the tracking data from 34 female soupfin sharks (Galeorhinus galeus) tagged with acoustic transmitters, Scripps Oceanography researcher and USD professor Andrew Nosal discovered these sharks exhibit a triennial migratory cycle, returning to the tagging site off La Jolla, Calif. every three years.
This is the first conclusive evidence in any animal of triennial philopatry, a term meaning ‘home-loving,’ referring to the periodic return of an animal to the same location. “During the first three years of tagging, none of the sharks returned to La Jolla after leaving,” […]
