Baby sharks will need to hunt earlier in warming ocean, research finds

“That started us down this road of temperature experiments, which has shown that the warmer water causes them to grow faster, which isn’t a good thing.”

Because the shark embryos grow faster they use up their egg yolk faster and hatch earlier, meaning they need to search for food sooner.

Dr Rummer said that had serious flow-on effects for the surrounding reef.

“If we get a whole lot of hungry predators all hatching and needing to eat right away and needing to eat more than they normally would that’s going to be a problem,” she said.

“The epaulette shark is considered a mid-level predator in its ecosystem, but if we were to remove…