[Extract] This project aimed to provide new information on the biology and ecology of the blacktip reef shark to address key knowledge gaps and provide information that informs the conservation and management of the blacktip reef shark. This thesis uses a vulnerability assessment approach that has been applied in a variety of fisheries and natural resource management contexts. This approach has been taken because vulnerability assessments provide a useful framework for organising and integrating different types of information. Vulnerability frameworks have been used to assess a variety of fisheries related risks including the risks to bycatch species such as sea snakes and turtles (Griffiths et al., 2006, Milton, 2001) and sharks and rays (Stobutzki et al., 2002); the economic risks climate change poses to fisheries (Fletcher, 2005); sustainability and risks of targeted fishing for sharks and rays (Salini et al., 2007, Walker, 2005a), and a wide range of other fisheries (see Hobday et al., 2007 for review). Australian fisheries have used vulnerability frameworks which compare a species’ susceptibility to the fishery against its productivity to describe sustainability (Gribble et al., 2005, Hobday et al., 2007, Salini et al., 2007, Stobutzki et al., 2001). Vulnerability frameworks are also used in assessing the vulnerability of species and systems to climate change (Chin et al., 2010, Füssel & Klein, 2006, Johnson & Marshall, 2007). In spite of the diversity of approaches, most vulnerability frameworks used to describe human-environment systems contain common conceptual elements (Adger, 2006): the exposure of the assessment entity (e.g. a species) to risk factors; the sensitivity of the assessment entity to the risks identified; and the adaptive capacity of the species to cope with the risk factors (Adger, 2006). These three components (or 'dimensions') and their interactions describe the characteristics of the entity being assessed, the relationships between these characteristics and external factors, ...