/>
Caesar grunts, damselfish and amberjacks near Port St. Joe, Florida.
Oceana/Carlos Suarez
READ MORE ABOUT:
Oceana’s expedition crew has been busy as ever since the last update I sent about the Alabama Alps.
This past week, our divers plunged into the waters near Port St. Joe, Florida for several days. They first explored an artificial reef, where they saw a variety of wildlife, including damselfish, grouper, sandfish, sea urchins and comb jellies, among other species.
Later they explored a nearby sunken ship, which was covered in gorgonians and sponges and inhabited by schools of grunts, spadefish and almaco jacks. In addition to spotting a blue angelfish and leopard toadfish, the divers saw two rare goliath groupers, one weighing approximately 100 pounds and the second nearly double that size.
Now the team is working with two scientists from the National Aquarium, Andy Dehart and Andrew Pulver, to tag sharks. Oceana hopes to see several shark species, including spinner, blacktip, blacknose, dusky, lemon, bull, mako, tiger, hammerhead and bonnethead.
In addition to collecting basic data from each shark, tagging can provide future information on stock identity, movements and migration, abundance, age and growth, mortality, and behavior. The tags can also help identify these sharks later as those that were in the general vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, which could help to determine the long-term impacts of the oil spill on shark populations.
On the first day, they practiced by catching and releasing an adorable baby bonnethead shark; here’s a video:
Gulf of Mexico Expedition: Shark Tagging Trials, St. Petersburg, FL (20 September, 2010) from Oceana on Vimeo.
Check out Oceana's blog for daily updates, check out more videos and photos from the boat and join the more than 155,000 people who have take action with us to stop offshore drilling. Special thanks to Nautica for their generous support of Oceana’s expedition in the Gulf of Mexico.
Written by Emily Fisher, online editor at Oceana.
Watch video on Oceana's mission and more in Ocean Currents where we dive deep into water issues.
Follow More With Ocean Currents
Top 5 Endangered Sharks (Video)
The Latest Gulf Oil Spill Coverage
Eat Sustainable Seafood
