Aspects of the biology of elasmobranchs in a subtropical embayment in Western Australia and of chondrichthyan fisheries in Indonesia

................................................................................................................................ 3 Table of contents .................................................................................................................. 7 Acknowledgements............................................................................................................. 10 Publications......................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 1: General Introduction..................................................................................... 12 1.1 The class Chondrichthyes ........................................................................................ 13 1.1.1 Family Carcharhinidae ..................................................................................... 13 1.1.2 Family Dasyatidae ............................................................................................ 14 1.2 Resource partitioning in fish communities .............................................................. 16 1.3 Distribution by water depth and movements of elasmobranchs .............................. 17 1.4 Partitioning of food resources among elasmobranchs ............................................. 19 1.5 Determination of age in elasmobranchs................................................................... 20 1.6 Reproductive biology of elasmobranchs.................................................................. 23 1.7 Elasmobranch fisheries ............................................................................................ 25 1.8 The Shark Bay World Heritage Area ....................................................................... 27 1.9 The Indonesian archipelago ..................................................................................... 28 1.10 Broad aims of the study ......................................................................................... 29 Chapter 2: General materials and methods ................................................................... 31 2.1 Sampling locations and regime in Shark Bay .......................................................... 32 2.2 Sampling locations and regime in south-eastern Indonesian ................................... 34 Chapter 3: Habitat partitioning among four species of elasmobranch in nearshore, shallow waters of a subtropical embayment in Western Australia ............................... 39 3.