Meeting #34 Club Intro & Hammerhead Tracking
Its a NEW YEAR! We kick start the year with the first meeting of Trimester 1, 2026, with our new acting president of Finstitute JCU, @ewaxkarolina, who introduced who we are, our mission, values, and aims.
Followed by Dr. @nic.lubitz, who shared his research on tracking hammerhead sharks, including their surprising presence in rivers and how this relates to the wet and dry seasons, bringing along an acoustic receiver and tags for us to check out.
Some highlights from his talk included:
The fascinating behaviour of shark lifestyle, where some sharks spend dry seasons in the riverways when salinities are at their highest, but tend to leave during the wet season, as salinity decreases.
Data collected from tagged Winghead, Scalloped, and Great Hammerhead sharks it was found that Hammerheads actually spend more time in freshwater environments than previously thought and have withstood salinities as low as 8 ppt.
With this discovery, the data can be used to inform and consult mining and dredging companies on what expansion consequences.
We want to give a huge thanks to Dr. @nic.lubitz and @ewaxkarolina for their amazing speeches and presentations, we look forward to see you all in the meetings to come for trimester 1!
