Monitoring the movements of sharks can help researchers to advise on the areas best served by marine reserves.

Credit: Thomas P. Peschak/Natl Geogr./Getty

In the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, a proposed marine protected area has been designed to safeguard mainly turtles and coral reefs. To see how well it might protect sharks, James Lea at the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom in Plymouth and his colleagues used acoustic transmitters to track 116 sharks (five species, including Carcharhinus melanopterus; pictured) over a three-and-a-half-year period in and around an area earmarked for a reserve in the Seychelles. They also tracked 25 turtles. When they compared the areas that these animals favoured with two proposed reserve sizes, they found that the larger reserve covered about 34% more of the animals' movements than the smaller one.

In response to the research, the Seychelles government agreed to use the larger protected area.

Proc. R. Soc. B 283, 20160717 (2016)