Australia
Grey Nurse Shark Project
Grey nurse sharks are Critically Endangered. With our partners, we use photo-identification to monitor individual sharks, from surveys at Wolf Rock to a catalog of more than 2,000 sharks along Australia's east coast.
Led by University of the Sunshine Coast, with MMF
Grey nurse sharks (Carcharias taurus), known as sand tigers in the USA, are Critically Endangered. We are helping to build a comprehensive photo-monitoring program for the species along Australia’s east coast.
Dr. Simon Pierce leads our grey nurse shark work. In Australia, he is an Adjunct Fellow at the University of the Sunshine Coast and Research Manager for Spot A Shark. He is developing AI-enhanced photo-monitoring of grey nurse sharks, which allows researchers to identify individual sharks and monitor them over time without capturing or tagging them. The work brings together the University of the Sunshine Coast, Spot A Shark, Sundive Research, the Queensland Department of Science and Innovation, and the Sharkbook.ai photo-monitoring database.
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Your gift helps us monitor threatened sharks and rays, from Critically Endangered grey nurse sharks in eastern Australia to our work around the world.
Our work on grey nurse sharks
Photo-identification surveys at Wolf Rock
Simon has been leading photo-identification surveys of grey nurse sharks at Wolf Rock, in collaboration with the University of the Sunshine Coast. As the only known gestation site for the species in eastern Australia, Wolf Rock is a key site for monitoring these sharks. The surveys soon documented long-term resightings, including one shark first recorded 20 years earlier.
An east-coast catalog
The Wolf Rock surveys are part of a wider effort to identify grey nurse sharks along the length of Australia’s east coast, with contributions from our partners at Sundive Research. By 2025, more than 2,000 individual sharks had been identified along the eastern coast, likely a significant proportion of the population. Pictured here, Jarrod Cameron, a PhD candidate at the University of the Sunshine Coast, photo-identifies a grey nurse shark off southeast Queensland.
AI-assisted photo matching
Sharkbook.ai, the global shark photo-monitoring database, has enhanced its AI models for identifying grey nurse sharks, alongside whale sharks, leopard sharks, and other species. Simon, a scientific advisor to Sharkbook, has been working with the Spot A Shark team, the University of the Sunshine Coast, and the Queensland Department of Science and Innovation to add grey nurse sharks to the platform, as part of a comprehensive monitoring program for the species.
Contributing dive photographs
If you dive with grey nurse sharks in Australia, your photos could contribute to this work. Visit Spot A Shark to learn how to submit them.
Dr. Simon Pierce
Australia Leopard Shark Project
Coral Sea Whale Shark Project