Sightings
Total Confirmed Unique Individuals in Spot a Shark Database
1157
Total Unique Individuals sighted in previous 15 years (2007+)
1121
Total Unique Individuals sighted in last 10 years (2012+)
452
Sightings can be few and far between for some individuals. If an individual has not been sighted for more than 15 years it most likely has died since these aggregation sites are well documented and the Grey Nurse sharks are habitual creatures that should be sighted at one or more of these sites throughout the year.
Recent evidence suggests that whilst numbers of sharks may be increasing, the overall health of the East Coast population is reducing and affecting mortality rates.
All line fishing methods that use hooks have the potential to harm Grey Nurse Sharks. Aside from the countless sightings of these sharks with hooks in their gills, mouth and eyes, autopsies of Grey Nurse Sharks found that hooks can become embedded in the throat and stomach, and can puncture the shark’s large liver. This can lead to bacterial infection, septicaemia (blood poisoning) and ultimately death, and is the largest known source of human-induced mortality of the species.
