{"id":222288,"date":"2025-09-13T01:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T01:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/222288\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T01:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T01:12:15","slug":"rare-good-news-for-critically-endangered-east-coast-grey-nurse-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/222288\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare good news for critically endangered east coast grey nurse sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grey nurse shark numbers along Australia’s east coast are on the rise, in “rare good conservation news” for the critically endangered species often dubbed “the labradors of the sea”.<\/p>\n

David Harasti from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries said the often misunderstood species was crucial for the ocean’s ecosystem and harmless to humans.<\/p>\n

“It’s one of the more placid sharks, they come and look at you really inquisitively, they follow you around,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They’re a very ferocious-looking shark with big pointy teeth but they’re not known to bite people.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The grey nurse shark population is increasing. (Supplied: David Harasti)<\/p>\n

Growing to more than three metres in length, grey nurses became the first shark species in the world to be protected in 1984.<\/p>\n

Dr Harasti said while there was no accurate population estimate for the time, divers and researchers raised the alarm after noting their decline.<\/p>\n

“Divers went actively searching for grey nurse sharks and where they used to find dozens they could only find a handful,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Divers took measurements and other vital data as part of their research. (Supplied: David Harasti)<\/p>\n

New research from the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and the CSIRO shows the population is slowly bouncing back.<\/p>\n

“The adult population is now estimated to be around 1,500 along the east coast and rising,” Dr Harasti said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“It’s increasing around five per cent a year, so this is a really good thing.<\/p>\n

“This is one of our first good news marine stories for a threatened species.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Grey nurse sharks live on the New South Wales Mid North Coast.\u00a0 (Supplied: David Harasti)<\/p>\n

Dr Harasti said the study used genetic modelling to estimate population size, including techniques involving “sneaking up on the sharks” to collect samples at crucial dive and aggregation sites.<\/p>\n

“Quite often underwater you’re contorting your body to get these samples,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The results back up what divers have been noticing in the wild.”<\/p>\n

Accurate population picture<\/p>\n

CSIRO principal research scientist <\/strong>Toby Patterson said getting an accurate sense of endangered populations was crucial for conservation work.<\/p>\n

“The popular view is that its easy to see how numbers are going \u2014 the reality is its quite hard to get that fundamental data,” he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Patterson said the CSIRO was also looking to use catch-and-release tagging methods like smart drum lines on more animals and species.<\/p>\n

“We’ve used it on white sharks, sawfish in the north, river sharks and also terrestrial animals in Australia,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That then supports better decision making, better management responses and to work out where funding and resources are most needed.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Toby Patterson says collecting fundamental data can be difficult. (Supplied: David Harasti)<\/p>\n

Threat remains<\/p>\n

University of the Sunshine Coast researcher Ross Dwyer said while the results of the study were exciting, there was still work to be done.<\/p>\n

“These results are really promising it shows the population does seem to be increasing, but the numbers are still very low,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“The genetic testing is exciting but its still in its infancy and needs to be corroborated.”<\/p>\n

Dr Dwyer said grey nurse sharks were slow to reproduce, and remained vulnerable to both recreational and commercial fishing.<\/p>\n

He said more research into aggregation sites would inform new green zones, and called for divers to submit sightings and photographs to research projects like Spot a Shark.<\/p>\n

“Particularly those spot patterns on their sides \u2026 that allows us to get a better understanding of shark interactions with fishing gear and how sharks are faring in terms of population numbers,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grey nurse shark numbers along Australia’s east coast are on the rise, in “rare good conservation news” for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":222289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1761,4788,746,815,120749,120751,159,2415,120750,2904,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-222288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-biology","9":"tag-conservation","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-genetics","12":"tag-grey-nurse-sharks","13":"tag-mid-north-coast","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-sharks","16":"tag-south-west-rocks","17":"tag-threatened-species","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115194334314517105","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}