Whale sharks as oceanic nurseries for Golden Trevally

M. Sheaves; C. Mattone; A. Barnett; K. Abrantes; M. Bradley; A. Sheaves; J. Sheaves; N. J. Waltham

doi:10.1071/PC23004

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Whale sharks as oceanic nurseries for Golden Trevally

M. Sheaves

^A ^B ^* , C. Mattone

^A ^B , A. Barnett ^A ^B , K. Abrantes ^A ^B , M. Bradley ^A ^B , A. Sheaves ^A ^B , J. Sheaves ^A ^B and N. J. Waltham ^A ^B ^C

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld, Australia.

^B Marine Data Technology Hub, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld, Australia.

^C TropWater, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: Marcus.sheaves@jcu.edu.au

Handling Editor: Alan Lymbery

Pacific Conservation Biology 30, PC23004 https://doi.org/10.1071/PC23004

Submitted: 12 January 2023 Accepted: 4 June 2023 Published: 3 July 2023

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

The Golden Trevally, Gnathanodon speciosus, is a large predatory fish with an extremely broad tropical Indo-Pacific distribution that crosses many biogeographical boundaries. Both published information and freely available imagery suggest that small juvenile G. speciosus are often associated with whale sharks, Rhincodon typus; an association that could explain the unusually widespread distribution of G. speciosus, and suggests a novel nursery relationship. The possibility of such an association has the potential to reshape our understanding of the ecological roles played by long-range migrants such as R. typus and other megafauna, our understanding of the full extent of their conservation value, and how we manage both members of the relationship.

Keywords: commensalism, dispersal, Gnathanodon speciosus, Golden Trevally, Indo-Pacific, mobile nurseries, Rhincodon typus, whale shark.

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