Scientists at New York Aquarium have discovered a nursery ground for sand tiger sharks in Great South Bay on Long Island. Researchers began tracking the sharks in 2011 when a dead juvenile was found at a marina. With acoustic transmitters and tags, they discovered juvenile sharks were frequenting Great South Bay.

“Sand tiger shark pups are not born here but migrate from down south to spend the summers as juveniles in New York’s coastal waters,” a scientist told the New York Daily News, adding 15 sharks tagged so far “will help us better understand where the sharks go, their habitat needs, and how we can better protect them.”

Sand tiger sharks are a “species of concern” and it is illegal for commercial or recreational fishermen to retain them on the Atlantic coast fo the U.S.

A sand tiger shark nursery has been well documented by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries in Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts, and adult sand tiger sharks have been frequently encountered in recent years by spear fishermen on Cape Cod and land-based fishermen on the Jersey Shore.

Featured photo: By Jeff Kubina from Columbia, Maryland (Shark) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons