[All-postdocs] Bioseminar - Jaida Elcock

[Ana Velez]

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Biology Department Seminar

Thursday, June 5, 2025 - 12:00 pm
Redfield Auditorium

Jaida N. Elcock
MIT-WHOI Joint Program Student

Migrations, Movement Ecology, and Resource Use of Large Elasmobranchs
Migration, or an organism's seasonal movements, is an important life history trait of many different species in various ecosystems. In a marine setting, many megafauna traverse large distances, potentially entire ocean basins, during their migrations. The functional role of these migrations may vary from taking advantage of foraging opportunities or for reproduction. For species vulnerable to exploitation and extinction, their migratory nature makes protection of such species additionally challenging. Whale sharks and basking sharks, the world's two largest fish species, conduct large scale migrations but for reasons that are still unknown. Both species spend time within the Northwest Atlantic (NWA) during spring/summer months, allowing us to access them to study their movements on both large and fine scales. Using tagging technologies, we investigated the overwintering behavior of basking sharks in the Sargasso Sea and the fine-scale movements of whale sharks on the eastern US's continental shelf. My findings suggest that basking sharks may be targeting a secondary deep scattering layer in the Sargasso Sea for prey resources, and preliminary results provide evidence for whale sharks foraging in the NWA. Exploring the movements of these large elasmobranchs will help us better understand the resource use of these shark as well as the importance of the ecosystems they rely on for sustaining large predators in a changing ocean.

For questions, contact:

Ana Maria Velez
Biology Pre-Award Administrative Associate
Ph: (+1)(508)289-2334
[signature_1005462319]

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