Pilot study on behaviour of sharks around Saba using acoustic telemetry - Progress report 2014

Worldwide many shark populations are in strong decline mainly due to fisheries. Population status of sharks in the Caribbean is still poorly known. In order to be able to take effective measures to protect sharks, insight in their spatial behaviour during different life stages is required. Do marine parks enhance shark populations and if so at what scale? This pilot study mainly aims at determining the feasibility of using telemetry around Saba and at a later stage at the Saba Bank and surrounding islands, e.g. what logistics and which co-operation, catching and deployment methods are required to set-up telemetric experiments for target shark species, and to get a first insight of the scale of movement patterns of the target shark species.