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The team on-board the Oceana Latitude tags a Caribbean reef shark off the Florida Keys.
Oceana/Carlos Minguell
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Last week, I told you how our team in the Gulf of Mexico was just getting started tagging small sharks off the coast of Florida. Well, now they’ve moved on to the big guys.
This week they are in the Dry Tortugas, a small group of islands off the Florida Keys. Our scientists are working with the shark team from University of Miami’s R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program, led by Dr. Neil Hammerschlag.
So far they have tagged several Caribbean reef sharks and sampled a few nurse sharks. Oceana marine scientist Elizabeth Wilson reported that the nurse sharks were “too big and feisty” to bring on the boat for tagging. (One was 10.5 feet long -- the biggest nurse shark any of the scientists had ever seen!)
Dr. Hammerschlag and his team are evaluating the ecosystem roles of sharks as well as determining the relative abundances, growth rates, and sex ratios of coastal shark species, the presence and concentrations of trace metals and other toxins present in these sharks, and residency and movement patterns of these sharks.
The scientists are using cutting-edge satellite technology to track the daily movements of the tagged sharks, and you can follow the sharks in near-real time on their website.
Wondering what it’s like to tag a shark? Watch this video to find out:
Gulf of Mexico Expedition: Dry tortugas, Shark tagging with University of Miami. (27 September, 2010) from Oceana on Vimeo.
You can also help protect sharks by telling your Senators to support the Shark Conservation Act, which would end shark finning in U.S. waters and has already passed the U.S. House. Thanks to everyone who has already taken action!
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.
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