National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
NOAA 
Fishery Bulletin 
@ established in 1881 << 
Spencer F. Baird G. 4 
First U.S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Abstract—Despite recent increases 
in the number of studies that have 
focused on the movements and hab- 
itat use of juvenile and adult white 
sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) in 
the Northwest Atlantic Ocean off the 
eastern United States, there is com- 
paratively little information on the 
movements of young-of-the-year (YOY) 
white sharks, particularly in the over- 
winter season. Simultaneous satellite 
and acoustic tagging were conducted 
on YOY white sharks in 2016 and 2017, 
and data from their first overwinter 
period (December through April) were 
analyzed. Tracks of 9 white sharks 
offer a preliminary characterization of 
overwinter habitat use. During 2 win- 
ter periods over consecutive years, 
YOY white sharks occupied continen- 
tal shelf waters (bottom depths: <100 
m) off the coasts of North and South 
Carolina with mean sea-surface tem- 
peratures of 14.9-21.2°C, mean sea- 
surface heights of —0.5-0.2 m, and 
mean chlorophyll-a concentrations of 
0.4-2.8 mg/m. Their overwinter habitat 
extended over 950 km south of the cur- 
rent essential fish habitat established 
for YOY white sharks; however, it did 
overlap with a seasonal closure area 
that restricts bottom longline fishing. 
These results provide preliminary evi- 
dence for the existence of an overwinter 
nursery area for YOY white sharks in 
US. waters of the Atlantic Ocean. 
Manuscript submitted 30 July 2021. 
Manuscript accepted 7 February 2022. 
Fish. Bull. 120:68—73 (2022). 
Online publication date: 16 February 2022. 
doi: 10.7755/FB.120.1.6 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Overwinter habitat use of young-of-the-year 
white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) off 
the eastern United States 
Rebekah C. James‘ 
Tobey H. Curtis (contact author)” 
Benjamin Galuardi? 
Gregory Metzger* 
Alisa Newton® 
Michael P. McCallister® 
G. Christopher Fischer” 
Matthew J. Ajemian® 
Email address for contact author: tobey.curtis@noaa.gov 
" Department of Biology and Marine Biology 
University of North Carolina Wilmington 
601 South College Road 
Wilmington, North Carolina 28403 
? Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Management 
Division 
Office of Sustainable Fisheries 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
55 Great Republic Drive 
Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930 
3 Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
55 Great Republic Drive 
Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930 
Effective conservation and manage- 
ment of highly migratory marine spe- 
cies relies on adequate characterization 
of focal habitat areas that often vary 
across seasons (Federal Register, 2017; 
Kohler and Turner, 2019). The desig- 
nation of essential fish habitat (EFH) 
for every fish stock federally managed 
under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act 
(Magnuson-Stevens . . . 2020) provides 
a platform for managers to analyze and 
mitigate the effects on those habitats 
from fisheries, coastal development, 
and offshore energy activities (Federal 
Register, 2017). However, fundamental 
data on distribution and habitat associ- 
ation are lacking for many highly migra- 
tory species. This lack of information is 
particularly true for the young-of-the- 
year (YOY) and juvenile life stages of 
many shark species found in U.S. waters 
* South Fork Natural History Museum 
377 Bridgehampton/Sag Harbor Turnpike 
Bridgehampton, New York 11932 
> Disney's Animals, Science and Environment 
1200 North Savannah Circle East 
Bay Lake, Florida 32830 
® Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute 
Florida Atlantic University 
5600 North U.S. Highway 1 
Fort Pierce, Florida 34946 
7 OCEARCH 
1790 Bonanza Drive 
Park City, Utah 84060 
of the Atlantic Ocean, given that most 
habitat use studies have focused on 
nursery areas used in summer, when 
species are abundant in nearshore or 
inshore areas that can be easily sampled 
(Heupel et al., 2007; McCandless et al., 
2007). There has been considerably less 
research on overwinter habitats of juve- 
nile sharks, owing to the logistical diffi- 
culties of field sampling during winter 
months in northern latitudes. 
Research into the seasonal move- 
ments and habitat of YOY white 
sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) in 
the Northwest Atlantic Ocean has only 
recently advanced, facilitated by mul- 
tiple electronic tagging and tracking 
studies (Curtis et al., 2018; Shaw et al., 
2021). Although Casey and Pratt (1985) 
were the first to report the occurrence 
of YOY and juvenile white sharks in 
the New York Bight, Curtis et al. (2018) 
