Do you think sharks are aggressive, feeding machines with pea-brains and a memory no longer than a few seconds? If not, you're amongst a minority. Opinions, such as these are common throughout the world, however, recent evidence suggests that learning can play an important role in shark natural behaviours.

Finding and capturing food, travelling great distances and avoiding predators, require some skill. However, despite this we still know very little about sharks' learning and memory capabilities in comparison to other animals.

To investigate such questions, researchers (Dr. Tristan Guttridge, UK and Dr. Culum Brown, AUS) from Macquarie University have recently begun an exciting new shark research project hosted at Merimbula Aquarium and funded by Sydney Aquarium Conservation Fund.

Over a four month period, these researchers are conducting a series of experiments on locally caught Port Jackson and Draughtboard sharks. Simple feeding trials will be undertaken using juveniles from both species, where food will be prepared at different time intervals with a stimulus, such as a light flash or sound. Can the sharks learn to associate the light or sound with food? Are some individuals or species quicker learners than others? How long can the sharks remember this for, a few days, weeks or months? Such information can be used to understand more about how ecological and environmental factors might shape learning in sharks.