Lemon shark nursery habitat use
Description
Data files associated with the research manuscript "A day in the life: Quantifying nursery habitat use in a coastal shark species". The study used combined accelerometer-acoustic transmitter tag packages to investigate fine-scale space use, activity and behavioural patterns of nursery-bound lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) in the Bahamas. Baited remote underwater video (BRUV) surveys were then used to investigate potential overlap between shark foraging effort and prey distributions. Accelerometer and tracking data showed that the tidal phase significantly affected space use, activity and behaviour. Sharks used nearshore areas over the high tide periods where resting increased and activity levels were reduced. On falling tides sharks moved further from the shoreline and increased overall activity. Foraging effort peaked at low tide periods and foraging events overlapped with areas of disproportionately high preferred prey abundance. Ontogenetic patterns were also found in which larger sharks generally occupied larger home ranges, spent more time in areas further offshore, rested less and foraged more than smaller individuals. The data sets provided here support the findings reported in this manuscript. Data include overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) and behavioural data logged from animal-attached accelerometer devices, coordinate data representing shark tracking locations and BRUV data representing distribution and abundance of fish species at the study site.