Science

Great hammerhead sharks are slow to grow and slow to reproduce, which makes them very vulnerable to overfishing — worldwide populations have shrunk and genetic diversity is dangerously low. To conserve these sharks, identifying the habitats they use and when they use them is critical. Scientists tagging and tracking sharks near Andros Island in the Bahamas have now discovered that although some sharks travel to the east coast of the US, others prefer to stick closer to home, living in the warm waters around Andros and returning to the same sites year after year.