Reproductive Biology of Two Shark Species in Northern Australia, 2018-2019

Between May 2018 and November 2019, 905 sharks were collected from commercial trawl fisheries in the Northern Territory, Australia. The dataset contains life history information for two small-bodied species, Carcharhinus coatesi and Rhizoprionodon acutus, including length, weight, and reproductive measurements. It was aggregated by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in July 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling sustainable harvest rates for small sharks based on reproductive biology data
• Assessing bycatch impacts on shark populations based on species-specific life history traits
• Comparing reproductive parameters between Carcharhinus coatesi and Rhizoprionodon acutus
• Analyzing spatial and temporal patterns of shark catches in Northern Australian fisheries

Strengths

• Includes data for 726 Carcharhinus coatesi and 179 Rhizoprionodon acutus specimens
• Contains multiple measurement types: length, weight, and reproductive biology
• Provides spatial and temporal information for catch locations

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the commercial trawl fishery source

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data_gov_au

Collection Method

Sharks collected from commercial trawl fisheries

Time Range

May 2018 to November 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-16 04:22:57.688543; freshness should be verified

Geography

Northern Territory, Australia