An Index of Abundance for Coastal Species of Juvenile Sharks from the Northeast Gulf of Mexico

A fishery-independent assessment of juvenile coastal shark populations in U.S. waters of the northeast Gulf of Mexico was conducted using two methods: gillnets and longlines. Surveys were conducted monthly during April–October in two fixed sampling areas from 1996 to 1998. The Atlantic sharpnose shark, Rhizoprionodon terraenovae, and the blacktip shark, Carcharhinus limbatus, were the most common species captured with either longlines or gillnets. An additional 14 shark species were captured, and juvenile indices of abundance were developed for 8 species with gillnets and 6 species of sharks with longlines. Trends in catch-per-unit-effort were found to vary depending on species. Length-frequency information revealed that the majority of sharks captured were juveniles. Given the direct relationship between stock and recruitment for sharks, continued monitoring of juvenile abundance will aid in determining the strength of the parental stock size and for predicting future population strength.

The Great Whales: History and Status of Six Species Listed as Endangered Under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973

In the history of whaling from prehistoric to modern times, the large whales, sometimes called the “great whales,” were hunted most heavily owing in part to their corresponding value in oil, meat, and baleen. Regional populations of North Atlantic right whales, Eubalaena glacialis glacialis, were already decimated by 1700, and the North Atlantic gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus, was hunted to extinction by the early 1700’s (Mitchell and Mead1).