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Fernando de Noronha as an insular nursery area for lemon sharks, Negaprion brevirostris, and nurse sharks, Ginglymostoma cirratum, in the equatorial western Atlantic Ocean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2009

Ricardo Clapis Garla*
Affiliation:
Laboratório de Biologia Pesqueira, Departamento de Oceanografia e Limnologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 59014-100, RN, Brazil Departamento de Botânica, Ecologia e Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 59072-970, RN, Brazil
José Garcia Jr
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicobiologia, Departamento de Fisiologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 59072-970, RN, Brazil
Leonardo Bertrand Veras
Affiliation:
Museu dos Tubarões, Fernando de Noronha, 53990-000, PE, Brazil
Norberto Peporine Lopes
Affiliation:
Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto – USP, 14040-903, SP, Brazil
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: R.C. Garla, Laboratório de Biologia pesqueira, Departamento de Oceanografia e Limnologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 59014-100, RN, Brazil email: rgarla@hotmail.com
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Abstract

Negaprion brevirostris and Ginglymostoma cirratum are large coastal sharks with a wide geographic distribution in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean whose southern populations are listed as vulnerable. Herein is reported the use of Fernando de Noronha Archipelago as a nursery habitat by both species in the equatorial Atlantic. Parturition time in N. brevirostris takes place between November and April whereas in G. cirratum it occurs from July to September.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2009

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