The coastal waters of South Africa are habitat to a diverse composition of sharks that are vulnerable to exploitation, many of which are endemic and/or classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as Threatened or Data Deficient. Accordingly, this region has been identified as a global research and conservation priority for elasmobranchs. The De Hoop Marine Protected Area (MPA), in the Weste...

Predators can impact ecosystems through consumptive or risk effects on prey. Physiologically, risk effects can be mediated by energetic mechanisms or stress responses. The predation‐stress hypothesis predicts that risk induces stress in prey, which can affect survival and reproduction. However, empirical support for this hypothesis is both mixed and limited, and the conditions that cause predation risk to induce stress respons...