Health and survival of juvenile sharks are highly dependent on the conditions they experience in nursery habitats

 

The Galapagos Islands are an important nursery habitat for blacktip and scalloped hammerhead sharks but environmental conditions are variable, what can affect health and survival of sharks.

The main goal of this project is to understand how variations in nursery habitat conditions contribute to the movement, health and survival of juvenile sharks in the Galapagos Islands.

This exciting project will be building on a collaboration among Alex Hearn (Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador), Neil Hammerschlag (University of Miami) and Ana Sequeira (University of Western Australia).

The degree will be based at the University of Western Australia, under the supervising of Ana Sequeira and Charitha Pattiaratchi. However, fieldwork will take place in the Galapagos under the supervision of Alex Hearn, with guidance from Neil Hammerschlag.

This will be a collaborative project, involving various team members, including other students. In addition to conducting the field work, the PhD applicant will analyse these data with advanced quantitative statistical approaches.

For more background information see the following website: https://www.uwa.edu.au/projects/assessing-health-and-survival-of-juvenile-sharks-in-the-galapagos-islands