About Spot a Shark
Your photos will help identify and protect the
critically endangered Grey Nurse shark
Help save grey nurse sharks!
Spot a Shark is a citizen science project focused on protecting critically endangered grey nurse sharks on Australia's East Coast (since 2006).
​
What We Do:
-
Collect photos of grey nurse sharks encounters from the diving community.
-
We use AI to identify individual sharks from their unique spots.
-
This non-invasive technique helps track shark health, location, and population trends.
-
Spot a Shark has been conducting regular surveys of the grey nurse shark population along the east coast of Australia since the year 2000 and have collected over 12,000 images.
-
We raise awareness about these sharks,and deliver training courses to the public.
-
We have supported shark rescues of injured sharks with the help of Sea Life Sanctuary.
-
Campaign to help increase protection for these critically endangered sharks so that future generations can also enjoy diving with them in years to come.
​
Your Contribution Matters:
-
Help scientists understand and protect this amazing species
​
​
Previous scientific research projects
​
​
The first phase of the project started in 2006 aiming to improve our understanding of diver impacts of C. taurus through the use of non-invasive techniques. Video was used to monitor populations in the presence of recreational divers at a key aggregation sites, such as Magic Point cave off Sydney and Fish Rock cave off South West Rocks. Metrics such as the number and distance of divers for shark watching activities were analysed against the number and presence of sharks and their physiological and behavioural changes towards groups of divers. This was done under strict experimental conditions. The research found that long term impacts were unlikely to occur if divers adhered to the national code of conduct for diving with C. taurus and followed appropriate dive briefings. Read the research here.
​
Our studies revealed diving in large groups of 6 or more within close proximity to aggregations ( < 3 m) could adversely affected their physiology, with changes in frequency of their ventilation and swimming rate (Barker et al 2011 a-b). The number of sharks in aggregation also changed, however this was relatively short lived. Two peer reviewed journal papers were subsequently published for which can be used for Government guidelines for sustainably diving with C. taurus at sites with relatively high touristic diving activity.
Diver Impacts
Photo ID
The second phase of our research involved documenting individuals using non-invasive photographic identification (Photo-ID) techniques. C. taurus have unique spots patterns along their flanks which can be used to identify individuals (Barker and Williamson 2010). Images of sharks dating back to 2000 at multiple sites in NSW and QLD were taken by our research group but images were also donated by the public through our website SpotaShark.com.
​
The number of images increased substantially and we currently have a library of over 5,800 images of C. taurus. A computer algorithm was used to search for images so that individuals can be recorded as new (unsighted before), or existing. This enables the placement of individuals in time and space. Individual sharks, especially juveniles, can occupy sites for extended periods of months and years (Barker and Williamson 2010). Existing sharks can also be re-identified at multiple sites. Read more on this research here.
Illustration of how we can identify the same shark even with years apart
Photo-ID can also be used to document impacts from recreational fishing. Images can sometimes uncover whether sharks acquired hooks at their occupied Critical habitat site. We have also documented images of sharks within days or weeks of having no visible signs of hooks and then subsequently resighted at the same location with a hook (see Conservation page for more). Some individuals have been through this multiple times. Hooks can be ingested by the sharks and can cause pain starvation and a slow agonising death.
