Whale sharks ( Rhincodon typus ) are large filter-feeders that reside in oligotrophic tropical waters. The feeding behaviours that enable these sharks to survive in such nutrient poor environments are not well understood beyond the surface. Here, we develop a species ethogram and synthesise foraging behaviours by combining observations reported in the literature (106 articles) with data collected by animal-borne cameras (22.5...

Southern right whale ( Eubalaena australis ; SRW) populations are recovering from the impacts of commercial whaling, however, recovery has been spatially variable, with strong associations between reproduction and prey availability. The diet of SRWs has not been widely examined, and with SRW foraging shifting away from high‐latitude foraging grounds dominated by krill, it is essential to understand their diet at different loca...

Tag-recapture programs to monitor the movements of fish populations are among some of the longest-running citizen-science datasets to date. Here, using half a century of yellowtail kingfish ( Seriola lalandi, Carangidae) tag-recapture data collected through citizen-science projects, we report novel insights into population connectivity in Australia and New Zealand (NZ). Despite the importance of kingfish in commercial and recr...

Tagging fishes with internal or external electronic tracking devices (acoustic, radio, satellite, or archival tags) is invaluable to behavioural, ecological, and welfare research, but may have adverse effects on the animals studied. While short‐term responses to tagging (e.g., days to weeks) have often been investigated, less information is available on longer‐term impacts (e.g., months to years) and the potential chronic effe...

Changes in buoyancy of marine mammals can be used to infer environmental changes. In multiple seal species, how “fast” an animal sinks reveals body condition changes through shifts in buoyancy as the ratio between lean and lipid tissue changes. However, quantifying similar at‐sea changes in Weddell seals ( Leptonychotes weddellii ) has remained unexplored. Here, we present a method of inferring buoyancy of Weddell seals by mon...

Ecological theory predicts niche partitioning between high-level predators living in sympatry as a mechanism to minimise the selective pressure of competition. Accordingly, male Australian fur seals Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus and New Zealand fur seals A. forsteri that live in sympatry should exhibit partitioning in their broad niches (in habitat and trophic dimensions) in order to coexist. However, at the northern end of...

Antarctic coastal polynyas are persistent and recurrent regions of open water located between the coast and the drifting pack-ice. In spring, they are the first polar areas to be exposed to light, leading to the development of phytoplankton blooms, making polynyas potential ecological hotspots in sea-ice regions. Knowledge on polynya oceanography and ecology during winter is limited due to their inaccessibility. This study des...

Abundance and population trends of Critically Endangered North Atlantic right whales ( Eubalaena glacialis , NARW) have been estimated using mark-recapture analyses where an individual’s state is based upon set delineations of age, using historical estimates of age at first reproduction. Here we assigned individual females to states based upon their reproductive experience, rather than age. We developed a Bayesian mark-recaptu...

Teeth are an integral component of feeding ecology, with a clear link between tooth morphology and diet, as without suitable dentition prey cannot be captured nor broken down for consumption. Bull sharks, Carcharhinus leucas , undergo an ontogenetic niche shift from freshwater to marine habitats, which raises the question: does tooth morphology change with ontogeny? Tooth shape, surface area and thickness were measured using b...

Coastal pelagic ecosystems are highly variable in space and time, with environmental conditions and the distribution of biomass being driven by complex processes operating at multiple scales. The emergent properties of these processes and their interactive effects result in complex and dynamic environmental mosaics referred to as “seascapes”. Mechanisms that link large-scale oceanographic processes and ecological variability i...

Changes in habitat availability and prey abundance are predicted to adversely influence survival and reproduction of wildlife in the Southern Ocean. Some populations of southern right whale (SRW; Eubalaena australis ) are showing dramatic changes in habitat use. Surveys were undertaken in the austral winters of 2020 and 2021 at the key nursery and socialising ground for New Zealand SRWs: Port Ross, Auckland Islands, with 548 e...

Greater Sydney is the largest coastal city in Australia and is where bull sharks ( Carcharhinus leucas ) are present every summer and autumn. A decade of acoustic telemetry data was used to identify drivers of space use for bull sharks and their potential prey, according to standardised 6-h intervals using dynamic Brownian bridge movement models. Influences of environmental, physical, and biological variables on the areas of s...

Globally, marine animal distributions are shifting in response to a changing climate. These shifts are usually considered at the species level, but individuals are likely to differ in how they respond to the changing conditions. Here, we investigate how movement behaviour and, therefore, redistribution, would differ by sex and maturation class in a wide-ranging marine predator. We tracked 115 tiger sharks ( Galeocerdo cuvier )...

Marine animals equipped with biological and physical electronic sensors have produced long-term data streams on key marine environmental variables, hydrography, animal behavior and ecology. These data are an essential component of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). The Animal Borne Ocean Sensors (AniBOS) network aims to coordinate the long-term collection and delivery of marine data streams, providing a complementary ca...

Delineation of population structure (i.e. stocks) is crucial to successfully manage exploited species and to address conservation concerns for threatened species. Fish migration and associated movements are key mechanisms through which discrete populations mix and are thus important determinants of population structure. Detailed information on fish migration and movements is becoming more accessible through advances in telemet...

Subsea infrastructure of the oil and gas industry attracts commercial fish species as well as megafauna including sea lions, turtles, sharks and whales. Potential impacts of this attraction, whether positive or negative, are unknown. As part of a pilot study, we deployed acoustic telemetry equipment around offshore infrastructure to assess its effectiveness in detecting tagged marine animals and to gain insights into patterns...