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Residency of the scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini) at Malpelo Island and evidence of migration to other islands in the Eastern Tropical Pacific

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Abstract

Sixty nine hammerhead sharks, Sphyrna lewini, were tagged at Malpelo Island (Colombia) with ultrasonic transmitters during March 2006, 2007 and 2008, as part of a study to understand their residency at the island and their horizontal and vertical movements. Five sharks visited Cocos Island, 627 km distant from Malpelo. One of the sharks that appeared at Cocos Island also visited the Galapagos Islands, 710 km from Cocos, a month later. There is connectivity of Sphyrna lewini between Malpelo, Cocos and the Galapagos Islands, but the frequency of movements between the islands appears to be relatively low (<7% of the tagged sharks). The most common depth at which the sharks swam coincided with the thermocline (rs = 0.72, p < 0.01). The depth of the thermocline varied depending on the time of the year. Nocturnal detections of the sharks were more frequent during the cold season than during the warm season (W = 60, p < 0.01). We also found that hammerheads spent significantly more time on the up-current side of the island (Kruskal-Wallis = 31.1008; p < 0.01). This study contributes to the knowledge of hammerhead sharks not only in Malpelo Island but also at a regional level in the Eastern Tropical Pacific.

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Acknowledgments

We want to especially thank Julia Miranda, Director of the Colombian National Parks, Admiral Barrera and Admiral Soto, commanders of the Colombian Navy for the inter-institutional work done in Malpelo FFS, to Jose Luis Gomez, Director of the Environmental Action Fund and the Whitley Fund for Nature, the SEASCAPE project finance by Global Conservation Fund/UNESCO and Conservation International for financing this project. We also like to thank Fabio Arjona and Maria Claudia Diazgranados from Conservation International Colombia for their great support in this and other projects, Fred Buyle and William Winram for helping us with their great free diving capability to tag the sharks. Yves Lefèvre for his great knowledge and perseverance to make the documentary of this project in alliance with Christian Petron from CINEMARINE. To the University of Stanford and the TOPP program, especially to Barbara Block and Donald Kohrs. To Philippe Gaspar, Francois Royer and Beatriz Calmettes from CLS, France, for the support with the DIVERSITY project. To Efrain Rodriguez- Rubio for his support in describing the oceanography surrounding Malpelo Island. Finally to the crew from the Asturias boat and to anybody else that in one way or another helped made this project possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fundación Malpelo, Carrera 11 No. 87-51 local 4 piso 2, Bogotá, Colombia

    Sandra Bessudo & German Andres Soler

  2. Biotelemetry Laboratory, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    A. Peter Klimley, James T. Ketchum & Alex Hearn

  3. PRETOMA, San Jose, Costa Rica

    Randall Arauz

  4. Charles Darwin Foundation, Puerto Ayora, Galapagos, Ecuador

    Alex Hearn

Authors
  1. Sandra Bessudo
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  2. German Andres Soler
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  3. A. Peter Klimley
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  4. James T. Ketchum
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  5. Alex Hearn
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  6. Randall Arauz
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Correspondence to German Andres Soler.

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Bessudo, S., Soler, G.A., Klimley, A.P. et al. Residency of the scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini) at Malpelo Island and evidence of migration to other islands in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Environ Biol Fish 91, 165–176 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-011-9769-3

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