Seasonal Occurrence of the White Shark, Charcharodon carcharias, in Waters off the Florida West Coast, with Notes on its Life History
Adams DH, Mitchell ME, Parsons GR. 1994. Seasonal Occurrence of the White Shark, Charcharodon carcharias, in Waters off the Florida West Coast, with Notes on its Life History. Marine Fisheries Review. 56(4):24-28
The white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, is considered rare in the Gulf of Mexico; however, recent longline captures coupled with historical landings information suggest that the species occurs seasonally (winter-spring) within this region. We examined a total of seven adult and juvenile white sharks ( 185-472 cm total length) captured in waters off the west coast of Florida. Commercial longline fisheries were monitored for white sharks during all months ( 1981 94 ), but this species was captured only from January to April. All white sharks were captured in continental shelf waters from 37 to 222 km off the west coast of Florida when sea surface temperatures ranged from 18.7' to 21.6'C. Depths at capture locations ranged from 20 to 164 m. Fishing gear typically used in Gulf of Mexico offshore fisheries may not be effective at capturing this species, and the apparent rarity of white sharks in this area may be, in part, a function of gear bias.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Adams, Douglas; Mitchell, Michael; Parsons, Glenn
- Units
- BISC
- Keywords
- Commercial, Fishing, Gulf Of Mexico, shark