Juvenile sharks may return to secondary nurseries for many years. The distribution of shark nursery areas in the northern Gulf of Mexico has not been documented. Our shark research program has been closely coordinated with those of NMFS-Pascagoula Laboratory in Mississippi , the University of Mississippi Department of Biology , the Louisiana State University Coastal Fisheries Institute and Mote Marine Laboratory . Long-term plans are to document the distribution and abundance of neonate and juvenile sharks in the Gulf of Mexico. Along the Gulf of Mexico coastline there are many bays and estuarine habitats which may serve as nurseries.
Many habitats vary from near-oceanic conditions to shallow esturine areas.
Our laboratory is currently investigating these questions and other questions with regard to how human activities and coastal development affect shark populations. Juvenile abundance indices To improve management and recovery of shark stocks, there is a need for better estimates of relative population abundance and monitoring of shark population strength. Prior to 1993, most estimators of shark population strength were derived from commercial fishing sources. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science has been monitoring the abundance of sandbar and dusky shark from areas adjacent to the mid-Atlantic Bight for the last 17 years. National Marine Fisheries Service-Pascagoula, MS has been developing an assessment of the distribution and abundance of coastal sharks in the Gulf of Mexico and western North Atlantic.