Spinal deformity in a whale shark, Rhincodon typus (Smith 1828), encountered in the northern Gulf of Mexico, with notes on its movement patterns.

This note details the first formal report of a spinal deformation in whale sharks, Rhincodon typus. An individual whale shark with suspected kypholordoscoliosis was observed at Ewing Bank in the Gulf of Mexico during aggregation events in 2010 and 2013. Despite the significant deformity, the shark was observed feeding on fish eggs at the surface during both encounters.

Identifying priority sites for whale shark ship collision management globally.

The expansion of the world's merchant fleet poses a great threat to the ocean's biodiversity. Collisions between ships and marine megafauna can have population-level consequences for vulnerable species. The Endangered whale shark (Rhincodon typus) shares a circumglobal distribution with this expanding fleet and tracking of movement pathways has shown that large vessel collisions pose a major threat to the species.

An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyan fishes inhabiting the northern Gulf of Mexico Part 1: Batoidea.

Herein we consolidate the information available concerning the biodiversity of batoid fishes in the northern Gulf of Mexico, including nearly 70 years of survey data collected by the National Marine Fisheries Service, Mississippi Laboratories and their predecessors. We document 41 species proposed to occur in the northern Gulf of Mexico. However, the validity of several of these reports and their associated data is questioned.

Movement patterns and habitat use of tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) across ontogeny in the Gulf of Mexico.

The tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) is globally distributed with established coastal and open-ocean movement patterns in many portions of its range. While all life stages of tiger sharks are known to occur in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), variability in habitat use and movement patterns over ontogeny have never been quantified in this large marine ecosystem. To address this data gap we fitted 56 tiger sharks with Smart Position and Temperature transmitting tags between 2010 and 2018 and examined seasonal and spatial distribution patterns across the GoM.