Year 3 (2025-26)

Previous literature has shown evidence of sexual dimorphism impacting animal behavior; however, there is a lack of data on how it impacts shark migration. The focus of this study was whether sexual dimorphism had an effect on the migratory behavior of sandbar and thresher sharks in the New York Bight (the Atlantic side of Long Island) during 2018-2022. The alternative hypothesis stated that migration of sandbar and thresher sharks during 2018-2022 is impacted by sexual dimorphism. The null hypothesis is that sexual dimorphism has no effect on shark migration. In this study, a pre-collected dataset of 75 individual sharks’ movement from 127 unique tag receiver locations in and around the New York Bight was analyzed using Mann-Whitney U tests. It was found that sexual dimorphism in thresher sharks affects their migratory temperature, photoperiod, lunar phase, and Julian day, which supports the alternate hypothesis that sexual dimorphism impacts the migration of New York Bight thresher sharks from 2018-2022. Sexual dimorphism in sandbar sharks impacts only their migratory temperature, which partially supports the alternate hypothesis that sexual dimorphism impacts the migration of New York Bight sandbar sharks from 2018-2022. This research is crucial because it provides information about migration preferences of shark species in terms of sexual dimorphism, which allows accurate creation of protective areas for them. It is important to protect sharks because they are keystone species. This research also allows scientists to further question the impacts of sexual dimorphism on not only sharks but also other species with sexual dimorphism.