This species makes extensive migrations, for example, animals tagged in the United Kingdom showing mixing throughout their Northeast Atlantic distribution and being recaptured as far away as to the north of Iceland (2,461 km), the Canary Islands (2,526 km) and the Azores (1,610 km off the coast of Portugal) (Fitzmaurice 1979, Holden and Horrod 1979, Stevens 1990). In Australia, tagging has shown mixing across most of the southern half of the continent (with movements of up to 1,260 km) and a number of animals have moved across the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand (Olsen 1984, Brown et al. 2000).

Spatial and temporal variations in size structure and sex ratio are apparent for various populations of G. galeus (see Walker 1999), which have implications for management. The species appears to have fairly discrete pupping and nursery areas, which are often in shallow, protected bays and estuaries (Olsen 1954).

Australasia
Inshore waters of Victoria and Tasmania include nursery areas for this species. Olsen (1959,1984) reported a decline in abundance of juveniles in two Tasmanian nursery areas sampled regularly over a five-year period. He attributed this decline to fishing pressure on pregnant females during their pupping migration and to intensified fishing of juveniles in inshore areas such as Port Phillip Bay during the period 1940 to 50. In Port Phillip Bay during 1943 to 1945, 60,000 juveniles averaging 0.9 kg in weight were caught annually. A continuation of this nursery area sampling during the 1990s (Stevens and West 1997) indicated a substantial further reduction in abundance of school shark pups and small juveniles in Tasmanian and Victorian embayments and estuaries. Since the abundance of pups sampled in these areas seems insufficient to account for the current adult stock size it is likely that other pupping areas exist, either outside Victoria and Tasmania, or more likely, close inshore along ocean beach coastlines. In New Zealand inshore embayments such as Kaipara Harbour are nursery areas for this species (Walker 1999).

Southwest Atlantic
The southwest Atlantic population of G. galeus migrates seasonally between wintering grounds off south Brazil and Uruguay, and summer grounds off Argentina where the pupping and nursery areas are situated.

In the wintering area off south Brazil the species occurs from April to November, south of latitude 33°S over smooth bottom at depths of 40 to 330 m (Vooren 1997). Only large juveniles (mostly with TL from about 70 cm onwards) and adults of both sexes migrate in winter to south Brazil, where at that time the gravid females concentrate during the final phase of gestation and where the non-gravid adult females copulate in a specific area on the upper continental slope (Peres and Vooren 1991, Ferreira and Vooren 1991). Birth does not occur in south Brazil.

In Argentina the commercial fishery operates inshore at depths of 18 to 57 m, from September to December off Buenos Aires Province, then in January and February in northern Patagonia, then in March-April again off Buenos Aires (Chiaramonte 1998, Elías et al. 2004). These periods correspond with the months of departure and arrival of the species in south Brazil. It is inferred that the age groups older than about five years of the population as a whole migrate between Argentina and south Brazil, and that the nursery grounds are situated in Argentine waters and in some cases are where critical habitat is known to have been lost (e.g., Bahía Blanca and El Rincón).

South Africa
Little is known about the movements of the South African population of G. galeus (Freer 1992). Seasonal differences exist in catch composition, females comprise the majority of the catch (~90%) from December to January and males comprise close to 100% of the catch between April and September (Freer 1992, M. Kroese pers. comm. 2003). Catch records from the RV Sardinops and RV Africana indicate that midsummer (December) catches are dominated by pregnant females (Freer 1992). Individuals have been caught up to depths exceeding 400 m, although they are most frequently caught between 55 to 150 m (McCord 2005). It is thought that female G. galeus give birth in lagoons and estuaries along the west coast of South Africa (Compagno et al. 1989), and although no nursery areas have been conclusively identified, Freer (1992) suggests shallow embayments such as Struis, St.Helena, Walker and False Bays, and data from the Gansbaai longline fishery with a high proportion of the catch being immature females may also be a nursery area for this species (M. McCord pers. comm).

Northeast Atlantic
Little is known regarding critical habitats but nursery areas may occur off Portugal and around the Canary Islands (Munoz-Chapuli 1984), and possibly in the Bristol Channel, UK (see Walker 1999 for further details).

Eastern North Pacific
In the eastern North Pacific, young and immature sharks are caught off Ventura Flats, San Francisco Bay, Monterey and Tomales Bay. Southern California below Point Conception (especially Ventura Flats, east of Santa Barbara) is an important G. galeus nursery ground, with considerable numbers of adult females and newborns being found there in the spring. They are known to segregate by sex and size. South of Point Conception, adult males tend to be found further offshore in deeper water (>20 m), while females are in usually found in shallower water (<15 m). The proportion of large mature males is highest in northern California, while mature females are most abundant in southern California. North of Point Conception there is a greater proportion of smaller immature females, but in central California the sex ratio is about even (Ripley 1946, Ebert 2001, 2003). They are highly migratory, moving north during the summer and south during the winter or into deeper waters. They are swift moving and can travel up to 34 miles per day and have been reported to travel at a sustained rate of 10 miles per day for up to 100 days. One shark tagged off Ventura in southern California was captured 26 months later off Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Another shark was tagged in San Francisco Bay and recaptured 12 months later in the same location.

Decreasing