Winter residency and site association in the Critically Endangered North East Atlantic spurdog Squalus acanthias

J. Thorburn*, F. Neat, D. M. Bailey, L. R. Noble, C. S. Jones

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Identification and incorporation of residential behaviour into elasmobranch management plans has the potential to substantially increase their effectiveness by identifying sites where marine protected areas might be used to help conserve species with high migratory potential. There is evidence that the spurdog Squalus acanthias displays site association in some parts of its global distribution, but this has currently not been shown within the North East Atlantic where it is Critically Endangered. Here we investigated the movements of electronically tagged spurdog within Loch Etive, a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland. Archival data storage tags (DSTs) that recorded depth and temperature revealed that 2 mature female spurdog overwintered within the loch, restricting their movements to the upper basin, and remaining either in the loch or the local vicinity for the rest of the year. This finding was supported by evidence for limited movements from conventional mark-recapture data and from an acoustically tagged individual spurdog. Some of the movements between the loch basins appear to be associated with breeding and parturition events. This high level of site association suggests that spatial protection of the loch would aid the conservation of different age and sex classes of spurdog.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)113-124
Number of pages12
JournalMarine Ecology Progress Series
Volume526
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Apr 2015

Bibliographical note

Date of Acceptance: 19/01/2015

Acknowledgements.
Thanks go to the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network and all anglers who contributed to the mark−recapture data with special thanks to Ian Burrett and Steve Bastiman; Ronnie Campbell for skippering the vessel used in this study; John Howe and Martin Sayer from the Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS) for Loch Etive bathymetry and loch mouth temperature data; Henrik
Stahl and Dmitry Aleynik (SAMS) for providing the temperature data from the monitoring stations in Loch Etive; Berit Rabe and Jennifer Wright at Marine Scotland Science for providing temperature data from the Firth of Lorn and Loch
Linnhe; Clive Fox and John Beaton from SAMS for help with the acoustic moorings; and Jane Dodd at Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) for her help in various aspects of this project. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers, whose comments helped us substantially improve this manuscript. This study was supported by a grant from the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology in Scotland and SNH.

Keywords

  • archival tag
  • conservation
  • migration
  • spatial ecology
  • residency
  • marine protected areas
  • Spiny dogfish
  • Loch Etive
  • deep-water renewal
  • spiny dogfish
  • reproductive-biology
  • electronic tags
  • shark nursery
  • management
  • fisheries
  • behavior

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