STLS Australia

Background

Australia hosts the largest known populations of leopard sharks in the world. In particular, during the austral summer months between November and February, leopard sharks aggregate in the coastal waters of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. These aggregations have been the focus of research spanning 20 years with several individual sharks being tracked over that time.

Our Partners

Who are we

  • Dr Christine Dudgeon

    Chris started working on leopard sharks in 2003 as part of her PhD studies. Her focus was examining the population demography and movement ecology of a seasonal aggregation off North Stradbroke Island/Minjerribah in southern Queensland Australia, with a global focus on population genetics.

    Her ongoing work with the species includes documenting a switch from sexual to asexual reproduction, testing genetic data to estimate population size, establishing the STLS citizen science project in Thailand, and ongoing movement ecology and reproductive studies. She is a founder of the StAR Project, ReShark’s pioneering initiative.

  • Rebecca Bateman-John

    Re is a shark and ray researcher based on the Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia. In 2016, she began a citizen science project that aims to collect public sightings of certain species, including the leopard shark.

    There are currently around 60 catalogued leopard sharks for this area, with additional sightings from other areas in WA. She is hoping to learn more on the residency of leopard sharks in the Ningaloo region, and better understand leopard shark distribution in Western Australia.

  • Dr David Robinson

    David is a marine ecologist whose interests have worked with many species of marine megafauna, particularly whale sharks, leopard sharks and sea turtles. David founded the Sharkwatch Arabia initiative, the Cape Byron Leopard Shark Project and is a founding member of the original Qatar Whale Shark Research Project.

    For twelve years, David helped run the Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project based at the Burj Al Arab Aquarium in Dubai. David has focussed much of his past research on the ecology and satellite telemetry of whale sharks and sea turtles in the Arabian Gulf region. Now based in Byron Bay, Australia, and as one of the owners of Sundive Byron Bay, David has started the Sundive Research initiative, which is currently focused on the local ecology of leopard sharks in association with Spot the Leopard Shark Australia.