First records of the roughskin dogfish Centroscymnus owstonii in the greater Antilles, central Caribbean Sea, Western Atlantic Ocean.

The roughskin dogfish Centroscymnus owstonii, a deep-sea shark, has a patchy global distribution, with most knowledge stemming from incidentally captured specimens. Using a deep-sea remote lander video system, we observed multiple C. owstonii individuals alive on the footage at 1054 m off Little Cayman, Cayman Islands, Western Atlantic Ocean, marking, to our knowledge, the first record of the species in the Greater Antilles, central Caribbean Sea, while also adding a new species locality record for the Cayman Islands.

Similar bacterial communities on healthy and injured skin of black tip reef sharks.

Background: Sharks are in severe global decline due to human exploitation. The additional concern of emerging diseases for this ancient group of fish, however, remains poorly understood. While wild-caught and captive sharks may be susceptible to bacterial and transmissible diseases, recent reports suggest that shark skin may harbor properties that prevent infection, such as a specialized ultrastructure or innate immune properties, possibly related to associated microbial assemblages.

Use of Photo-Identification and Mark-Recapture Methodology to Assess Basking Shark (Cetorhinus maximus) Populations.

Following centuries of exploitation, basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) are considered by IUCN as Endangered in the Northeast Atlantic, where they have now been substantially protected for over two decades. However, the present size of this population remains unknown. We investigated the use of photo-identification of individuals' dorsal fins, combined with mark-recapture methodology, to investigate the size of populations of basking shark within the west coast of Scotland.

Whale sharks, Rhincodon typus, aggregate around offshore platforms in Qatari waters of the Arabian Gulf to feed on fish spawn.

Whale sharks, Rhincodon typus, are known to aggregate to feed in a small number of locations in tropical and subtropical waters. Here we document a newly discovered major aggregation site for whale sharks within the Al Shaheen oil field, 90 km off the coast of Qatar in the Arabian Gulf. Whale sharks were observed between April and September, with peak numbers observed between May and August.

Transatlantic migration and deep mid-ocean diving by basking shark.

Despite being the second largest fish, basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) have been assumed to remain in discrete populations. Their known distribution encompasses temperate continental shelf areas, yet until now there has been no evidence for migration across oceans or between hemispheres. Here we present results on the tracks and behaviour of two basking sharks tagged off the British Isles, one of which released its tag off Newfoundland, Canada.

Visitor perceptions and the shifting social carrying capacity of South Sinai's coral reefs.

To investigate how the perceptions and behaviour of visitors to coral reefs are influenced by their prior experience and knowledge of marine life, a questionnaire-based study was undertaken at sites in the Ras Mohammed National Park and at Sharm El Sheikh, South Sinai, Egypt. It was evident that over the 10-20 years during which these reefs have deteriorated (mainly due to reef-flat trampling), there have been interrelated shifts in the nature of visitors making use of them. First, there has been a shift from experienced divers and snorkellers to inexperienced snorkellers and non-snorkellers with a poorer knowledge of reef biology.