Ally Sheehan, graduate student in the marine science program, was surprised to catch so many sharks during the Conservation and Ecology of Sharks course’s field weekend at the Rickenbacker Marina.
“I [was] thinking two or three sharks, so to get 10 is pretty fantastic,” said Sheehan.
Sheehan and other students in the Conservation and Ecology of Sharks course went shark tagging during the field weekends, which took place March 31 – April 2 and April 7 – 9.
The class is a virtual half semester course with a weekend of field work. The class is taught by David Shiffman, adjunct faculty, who is teaching the course for the first time. In the weekends of field work, the course was taught by Shiffman and a separate company called Field School.
Shiffman said working with Field School gives students a chance to experience an open, welcoming environment with other like-minded scientists.
There were 11 students in the boat on the first weekend, with 26 students in the course. The first half of the class went on the R/V Garvin boat to do field work, while the other half went April 7 – 9.
“Students have their own opinion on what species they’d like to see, but I want them to see as many sharks as possible,” Shiffman said.
The field experience part of the course lasted three days on each weekend. The first weekend of field work, the students caught one shark on March 31 and April 1, but on April 2, they got lucky and caught 10 sharks. The field experience gives students an opportunity to get hands-on experience.
“My goal for this course is for the NSU graduate students to gain some hands-on experience with a variety of field research techniques,” Shiffman said.
Alongside Shiffman and the graduate students, there were six experienced Field School workers and four guests on the R/V Garvin boat. The Field School workers and guests hauled the lines when the sharks were caught to show the students how they were supposed to do it. The workers and guests caught at least three sharks, while the students collected data by biopsy, blood samples, cutting the dorsal fin and tagging. The data collection helps keep up to date with the conservation and health of the sharks that they catch.
“Our oceans are everything, so if our oceans collapse, so will everything else around us, and the research and experience we get from field school is amazing and bigger,” said Madeline Hammond, graduate student in the environmental science program. “They have really great tools, and everyone in field school are awesome and are great people to get advice from.”
The team caught 10 sharks, but there was one that broke the line and another two that escaped while trying to haul them on the platform. There were seven nurse sharks, two sandbar sharks and one hammerhead shark. Five of the seven nurse sharks were caught while the others escaped.
On the second weekend, the students caught 13 sharks, including new species like bonnethead and blacktip sharks.
The students were excited to finally have days where they all had the opportunity to collect lots of data and to haul the sharks. They were also excited by the amount and variety of sharks caught on April 2.
“You study them, measure them, you learn how they look and you always imagine them a little smaller than they are, so to see them is a wild encounter,” Sheehan said.
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