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<p>Marine animals inhabit a three-dimensional environment, which necessitates knowledge of both horizontal and vertical movements to understand the scope of their habitat use. Large-bodied hammerhead sharks (family Sphyrnidae) are known to undergo long distance horizontal movements while also making regular and repeated dives to considerable depths. However, vertical movements of smooth hammerheads (<i>Sphyrna zygaena</i>) are poorly understood compared to other sphyrnids, despite the importance of vertical habitat use in their ecology and potential exposure to anthropogenic threats. We used high-rate pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs) to track vertical movements of juvenile smooth hammerheads (<i>N</i> = 5) in waters off Long Island, New York, USA, between July and September 2022–2024. Sharks were highly surface-oriented and had shallow depth distributions (&lt; 10&#xa0;m), with 45.5% of depth records shallower than 2&#xa0;m. Nighttime depth records were deeper than during the day and sharks largely limited movements within a temperature range of 20–24&#xa0;°C. Although smooth hammerheads tracked in our study were very surface oriented, they regularly dove through the water column displaying dives of varying duration and shape. Sharks engaged in both V-shaped and U-shaped dives (70.1% and 29.9% of total respectively), which presumably reflect different behaviors. The rate of descent of dives was significantly faster than the rate of ascent, possibly related to energy expenditure. Our study sheds light on the vertical movements and habitat use of this species and provides information towards assessing their exposure to anthropogenic threats in this region.</p>

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Preliminary observations on vertical habitat use and diving behavior of juvenile smooth hammerhead sharks Sphyrna zygaena in the western North Atlantic

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月3日

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  • Luke R. Johnson,
  • Tobey H. Curtis,
  • Gregory Metzger,
  • Bradley M. Wetherbee

摘要

Marine animals inhabit a three-dimensional environment, which necessitates knowledge of both horizontal and vertical movements to understand the scope of their habitat use. Large-bodied hammerhead sharks (family Sphyrnidae) are known to undergo long distance horizontal movements while also making regular and repeated dives to considerable depths. However, vertical movements of smooth hammerheads (Sphyrna zygaena) are poorly understood compared to other sphyrnids, despite the importance of vertical habitat use in their ecology and potential exposure to anthropogenic threats. We used high-rate pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs) to track vertical movements of juvenile smooth hammerheads (N = 5) in waters off Long Island, New York, USA, between July and September 2022–2024. Sharks were highly surface-oriented and had shallow depth distributions (< 10 m), with 45.5% of depth records shallower than 2 m. Nighttime depth records were deeper than during the day and sharks largely limited movements within a temperature range of 20–24 °C. Although smooth hammerheads tracked in our study were very surface oriented, they regularly dove through the water column displaying dives of varying duration and shape. Sharks engaged in both V-shaped and U-shaped dives (70.1% and 29.9% of total respectively), which presumably reflect different behaviors. The rate of descent of dives was significantly faster than the rate of ascent, possibly related to energy expenditure. Our study sheds light on the vertical movements and habitat use of this species and provides information towards assessing their exposure to anthropogenic threats in this region.