Evidence of Nursery Area and Length-Weight Relationships for Longnose Spurdog Squalus blainville in the Northeastern Mediterranean

Nursery areas are essential habitats for sharks, offering protection and increasing the survival of newborns. This study aims to investigate a potential nursery area for Squalus blainville in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea that has very scarce information in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and contributes to the length-weight relationships. We identified the location of the potential nursery area by interviewing local fishermen. We collected 48 adults and 22 embryos neonates of S. blainville specimens from the entrance of Iskenderun Bay on 03 April 2024. We recorded 48 longnose spurdog sharks in the catches ranging from 68.9 cm to 120.2 cm TL, which corresponded to mature individuals. The length-weight relations (LWR) of combined sexes of S. blainville were observed as W = 0.0005 x L3.0277 (R2 = 0.9303). Our data provide evidence to recognize Iskenderun Bay as a possible nursery area for longnose spurdog sharks, meeting all the criteria proposed to identify nursery areas. These findings constitute the first documented evidence of a longnose spurdog shark nursery area in the Iskenderun Bay in Turkish marine waters.