Coastal movements of a critically endangered wedgefish species and the importance of transboundary conservation

Wedgefishes represent a threatened group of elasmobranchs with limited knowledge on their ecology and habitat use. In order to improve our understanding on their movement ecology, 28 whitespotted wedgefish Rhynchobatus djiddensis were acoustically tracked for up to seven years along a ~900 km stretch of the South African and Mozambican coastline. While detection rates were low, site fidelity was evident (the majority of detections occurred within 50 km of tagging location). However, there was intraspecific variability in the scales of movement, with individuals tagged in the northern extent of the study region displaying restricted movements (&lt; 100 km), while individuals tagged in the southern extent made significant longshore movements (up to ~500 km). Movements lacked seasonal trends in directionality, suggesting they were not migrations, and the drivers of these movements remain unresolved. This study confirmed for the first time that whitespotted wedgefish undertake transboundary..., , # Coastal movements of a critically endangered wedgefish species and the importance of transboundary conservation Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.b5mkkwhtq](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.b5mkkwhtq) ## Description of the data and file structure This study was conducted along a ~900-km stretch of the eastern seaboard of southern Africa. Underwater passive acoustic receivers (models 69 kHz VR2W and VR2AR, Innovasea, Halifax, Canada), forming part of South Africa’s collaborative Acoustic Tracking Array Platform (ATAP) monitor this region from Kei Mouth in South Africa to Santa Maria in southern Mozambique. Whitespotted wedgefish were acoustically tagged opportunistically at multiple locations along the coastline between 2016 and 2021. The data represents the acoustic detections from tagged animals on the acoustic receivers. ### Files and variables #### File: ALLdata2025_GeneralLocation3.csv **Description:** ##### Variables * FishID: The unique number associated with the acoustic tag im..., ,犁头鳐类（Wedgefishes）是一类受威胁的板鳃类（elasmobranchs），目前对其生态学与栖息地利用的认知仍较为有限。为加深对其移动生态学的理解，研究团队在南非与莫桑比克沿岸约900千米的海域内，对28尾白点犁头鳐（Rhynchobatus djiddensis）进行了长达7年的声学追踪。尽管检测率较低，但个体的站点保真度（site fidelity）显著——绝大多数检测记录均出现在标记地点周边50千米范围内。不过不同个体的移动尺度存在种内差异：在研究区域北部标记的个体移动范围受限（<100千米），而南部标记的个体则展现出显著的沿岸长距离移动（最远可达约500千米）。其移动未表现出方向性的季节趋势，提示这类活动并非洄游，且驱动这类移动的机制仍未明确。本研究首次证实，白点犁头鳐会开展跨界移动…… # 极危犁头鳐物种的沿岸移动与跨界保护的重要性 数据集DOI: [10.5061/dryad.b5mkkwhtq](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.b5mkkwhtq) ## 数据与文件结构说明 本研究沿南非东部沿岸约900千米海域开展。水下被动声学接收器（型号为69 kHz VR2W与VR2AR，产自加拿大哈利法克斯的Innovasea公司）作为南非协作式声学追踪阵列平台（Acoustic Tracking Array Platform, ATAP）的组成部分，负责监测从南非开伊河口（Kei Mouth）至莫桑比克南部圣玛丽亚（Santa Maria）的海域。研究团队于2016年至2021年间，在沿岸多个点位对白点犁头鳐进行了机会性声学标记。本数据集包含标记个体在声学接收器上获取的声学检测数据。 ### 文件与变量 #### 文件：ALLdata2025_GeneralLocation3.csv **描述：** ##### 变量 * FishID：与声学标记标签关联的唯一编号……