14-September-2022 (written by Jessica Pearce)
During her visit to Perth in the last couple of weeks, our lab leader Dr Ana Sequeira had the chance to give a presentation to the Western Australian (WA) Naturalists’ Club about the movement of marine megafauna in Shark Bay. She was also joined by SequeiraLab member Dr Oliver Jewell, who talked about the work with sharks and demonstrated the tagging gear.
This presentation, focused on the work done as part of the Gathaagudu (Shark Bay) Animal Tracking (GAT) project, which has been running for over one and half years. Through this project, our field team has currently tagged and collected movement data from multiple green and loggerhead turtles as well as tiger sharks. The aim of GAT is to better understand the movements of these animals, particularly in relation to the extensive seagrass meadows in Shark Bay and to investigate links between this World Heritage Area and Ningaloo Reef, another World Heritage Area on the west coast of Australia. Ultimately, this information will be useful to inform conservation management actions needed to mitigate potential impacts from climate change. So far, our tracking data is already revealing some interesting patterns in the movement of resident turtles and sharks, and where they might interact.
The talk was attended by members of the club and the general public, and they all showed great interest in this exciting work. Amazing job Ana and Oli!
Sequeira Lab 