Reef shark movements relative to a coastal marine protected area

Marine protected areas (MPA) are one management tool that can potentially reduce declining shark populations. Protected-area design should be based on detailed movements of target animals; however, such data are lacking for most species. To address this, 25 sharks from three species were tagged with acoustic transmitters and monitored with a network of 103 receivers to determine the use of a protected area at Mangrove Bay, Western Australia. Movements of a subset of 12 individuals (Carcharhinus melanopterus [n=7]), C. amblyrhynchos [n=2], and Negaprion acutidens [n=3]) were analysed over two years. Residency for all species ranged between 12 and 96%. Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos had