Date of Award

8-1-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Coastal Marine and Wetland Studies

Department

Coastal and Marine Systems Science

College

College of Science

First Advisor

Erin J. Burge

Second Advisor

Daniel C. Abel

Third Advisor

Derek P. Crane

Additional Advisors

Carol Seals Price

Abstract

Sand tigers Carcharias taurus are mackerel sharks with a disjunct global distribution in tropical and temperate seas. In the northwest Atlantic, sand tigers migrate along the coast of the eastern United States from the Gulf of Maine to Florida and occupy structurally complex benthic habitats. The long-term, underwater camera installation, SharkCam, at Frying Pan Tower, off Cape Fear, North Carolina, USA, sits atop an expanse of hard bottom reef frequented by sand tigers. The citizen-science platform Spot A Shark USA (SAS USA) uses images of sand tigers to identify and track individuals. This study utilized image encounters from SAS USA (n=1,359) and SharkCam (n=3,020) to glean information about sand tiger site fidelity, seasonality, movement, and fish associates off the coast of North Carolina (NC). To investigate site fidelity of sand tigers, SharkCam encounters were entered into SAS USA (n=545). Sand tiger seasonality, sex, and relative abundance at Frying Pan Tower were tracked from 2014–2021. At Frying Pan Tower, sand tigers appeared year-round but in highest abundance during the overwintering period with some female sharks appearing pregnant. Forty-four individual sand tigers were resighted up to 15 times over multiple years, with some females possessing visual markers of pregnancy. There was a total species richness of 17 teleosts behaviorally associated with sand tigers. This study contributes to existing evidence that coastal NC is important for sand tigers throughout their lifetimes, while the understanding of fish associates provides additional insight into interspecific interactions within the food web.

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