Inferring life history characteristics of the oceanic whitetip shark Carcharhinus longimanus from vertebral bomb radiocarbon Frontiers in Marine Science

Oceanic whitetip sharks Carcharhinus longimanus are a cosmopolitan epipelagic species that was once prolific throughout the tropics and subtropics but was recently listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and as Threatened under the United States Endangered Species Act. Although historically conspicuous in oceanic fisheries catches, relatively little is known about their habitat use, movement, and life history during migration. Given the paucity of data on migratory patterns and lack of age estimate validation available for this species, we evaluated vertebral growth bands for bomb radiocarbon (14C) patterns to derive additional information on these metrics. 2020 Carbon-14, Age validation, Migration, Diet, Vertebrae, Family Carcharhinidae NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) NEFSC (Northeast Fisheries Science Center) Submitted https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.581775 CC BY 1949