Community Focus Feb19

Last month, we raised funds to adopt two Port Jackson sharks to support research at Macquarie University’s Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution of Fishes Laboratory. Not only do we have the opportunity to name and follow our sharks’ movements in Sydney Harbour and Port Stephens, but we are also helping to contribute to researchers’ understanding of these species. Donations are put towards the purchase of acoustic tags that allow researchers to track the movement of individual sharks for the next 5 – 10 years.

This program hopes to determine whether sharks from Sydney Harbour and Port Stephens migrate south. Further, it hopes to ascertain whether males and females differ in their breeding site departure and arrival times. Future research is aimed at investigating whether Port Jackson sharks navigate based off a ‘mental map’ of their territory.