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Paper Indicates Hammerhead Nursery off Miami

Hammerhead sharks on Wetpixel

A paper published in the journal Conservation Science and Practice details the probable discovery of a nursery area for Great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) sharks near Miami, Florida. This discovery has significant implications for the conservation management of sharks in the area.

The study is preliminary as, of the three criteria used to determine whether a site is a critical nursery habitat, it has satisfied two. These are the fact that young sharks are more commonly encountered, and this has been the case for multiple years. The final criteria is that the juvenile sharks spend considerable time in the proposed nursery area. This needs further investigation.