Deep Sea Shark Associations with Dr. Brit Finucci (From The Vault)

From the Vault - This episode was recorded with Dr. Brit Finucci back in 2022! But.... life happens. We are so excited to finally share this episode with our sharkies! Join us this week to hear about Dr. Finucci's work studying deep sea sharks and their associations with each other! How do you even research deep sea sharks? How many species are there? How do sharks glow in the dark? Find out this and more!

The article we are reviewing with Dr. Finucci is titled, "Aggregations and associations in deep-sea chondrichthyans"

Summary (modified abstract): Group living has been recorded across a diverse range of chondrichthyans, but given the nature of deep sea chondrichthyans, any inferences of social associations have yet to be described. Using a companion preference analysis, aggregating behaviour and associations in deep-sea chondrichthyans (four holocephalans, ten elasmobranchs) were evaluated across class and group size from long-term archived fisheries independent research trawl survey datasets. Results indicated that not all selected species engaged in aggregative behaviour, but those that did suggested patterns of sex- and size-specific associations, which varied with catch density. Adult females were caught most frequently in low densities, and were highly associated with other adult females. Adult males were consistently associated with each other. The nature of associations provides important insight for selective mortality, such as aggregation-targeting fisheries.

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