Commnunity monitoring of Reef Sharks from the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea
Documents - Report: Research report
30 Apr 2008
This report provides preliminary results on 678 reef sharks counted by freedivers participating in The Great Australian Shark Count (GASC) in the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef waters between October and December 2007. Data reported here were collected using two different methodologies: edicated counts and Opportunistic counts. The most common species of reef shark counted in the Coral Sea was the Grey Reef Shark (69%) and the most common species of reef shark counted on the Great Barrier Reef was the White Tip Reef Shark (25%). The GASC project will continue throughout 2008 and early 2009 and with increased data collection will greatly improve the capacity for spatial and potentially temporal comparisons among species. These are important information gaps for fisheries and marine park managers.
Author: Welch, D.J. and Rupnik, M.
Organizer: Australian Underwater Federation
Location: Townsville, Australia
