Juvenile shark habitats not adequately protected: Australian study

Habitats crucial for the growth of juvenile sharks are not adequately protected, an Australian study has found.

The study, released by the University of Western Australia (UWA) on Friday, was conducted over 11 years using more than 2,000 underwater cameras to monitor 3000 kilometers of Western Australia's (WA) northern coastline.

Beverly Oh, the lead researcher of the study, said the research team found many nursery habitats of juvenile sharks were outside protected marine areas.

"Sharks are really important to our oceans and they contribute to a healthy fish population, but at the same time they produce very few offspring that take quite a long time to mature, which makes individual offspring very important," Oh said.

"The young sharks tend to spend time in nursery areas which allows them a safe space to grow faster and where they're less vulnerable to predators."

Oh said there was little overlap between proposed and existing marine reserves with areas suitable for shark habitats.

"If we want to have sustainable protection for them for the long term, we need to be able to identify where (young sharks are) and protect the habitat of the next generation so they can grow to adulthood," Oh was quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

She said that preserving areas where sharks can grow to adulthood was critically important as global shark numbers were in decline.

"That's partly because of over-exploitation from fishing as well as cumulative impacts from habitat loss and climate change is affecting areas where sharks can actually grow," she said.

"Ideally, we hope our predictions can be a useful tool that can be integrated into the decision-making process to improve conservation and management of sharks." Endit