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The Grey Nurse Shark is one of Australia’s most critically endangered species. A survey in 2002 estimated there were fewer than 500 in the critically endangered population living off the country's east coast. On the west coast, they are vulnerable but not yet endangered. Australia’s two Grey Nurse Shark populations have been isolated¹ from each other for more than 100,000 years. Until now the waters separating the two populations have been too cold for the sharks to come into contact with each other. But as temperatures rise due to global warming, warmer waters could result in the sharks inhabiting the same areas. If the shark populations unite, the extinction² risk may be reduced

 

Suddenly you’re gonna get an influx³ of new genes⁴ coming into the population which means that they perhaps won't be as susceptible⁵ to disease outbreaks, etc. In addition to that, of course the population, as a whole, grows.

 

But experts remain concerned about other environmental threats to the sharks, like commercial and recreational fisheries, ecotourism, overfishing for their fins⁶, the aquarium⁷ trade and beach meshing⁸.

 

“On the long term, climate change may be lending a helping⁹ hand to the survival of Grey Nurse Sharks, but we can’t have made sure if they get there first, and that means solving the near term management problems. And the greatest near term threat is the capture of them--the sharks on hooks.”

 

Grey Nurse Sharks became one of the first protected sharks in the world when New South Wales, Australia declared them a protected species in 1984. They are now also safeguarded by fishing legislation in at least four sites in southeast Queensland.

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