Photo of the Week: Bull Shark
A large male bull shark is pulled toward the research vessel for sampling and tagging. He is soon thereafter released in great condition.
Posts
Shark Tagging with St. Thomas Aquinas High School
By Brittany Bartlett, RJD Intern
4/21/2013
When I woke up at 4:45am and saw that it was still dark outside, I had every intention of rolling over, putting the pillow over my head, and going straight back to sleep. But, it then hit me that I was going shark tagging down in Islamorada! I quickly jumped up, got ready and was out the door by 5:15am to pick up our photographer, Amanda! It was going to be a great day!
Shark Tagging with Rho Rho Rho
by Nick Perni, RJD Intern
Saturday, April 20th, 2013
Saturday’s trip out of Islamorada was one to remember. Our guests were members of UM’s Marine science honor society Rho Rho Rho. Since their last trip yielded no sharks, the pressure was on to give our fellow classmates an up close encounter to the oceans top predator. On our way out to the reef Rho Rho Rho made sure to let us know just how disappointing it was to not catch a single shark on their previous trip.
When we arrived at the reef we set our drum lines and assured our guests that this would be a more successful trip than their last. After an hour of letting the drums soak we began to pick up our lines. In no time we were hauling up sharks. Our first was a scalloped hammerhead. The students clamored at the stern of the boat knowing too well that this could be their only chance of the day to see a shark. But the day was far from over.
Line after line came up with a shark and our guests were entirely engaged in the tagging and work-up process. By the end of the day we had caught eight sharks. Five were Hammerheads ranging from 9-13 ft (including 3 Scalloped and 2 Great Hammerheads), a new RJD record for Hammerheads caught on a single trip! The other three included two Sandbar sharks between 6 & 7 ft and one 7½ ft Bull shark. This was a spectacular trip for everyone aboard the
R/V Endsley, RJD was able to deploy two satellite tags and Rho Rho Rho finally got their lucky break. Upon our return to shore multiple interns agreed this was the best trip they had ever been on and I’m pretty sure our guests would agree.
Shark Tagging with the St. Thomas School
by James Komisarjevsky, RJD Intern
October 13, 2012
It was a quiet morning having to leave my house at 5:30AM in order to make it down to Islamorada for the shark trip planned for that day. Like always, I was screaming with excitement for being able to go out on the water with the RJD team and St. Thomas high school. Everybody had their hopes high and the RJD interns were even making friendly bets to see how many sharks we would be able to gather data on that day. Everybody knew it was going to be an awesome day when before leaving the docks, not one, but two rainbows had appeared in the sky. The RJD team and St. Thomas set out to the everglades national park in hopes of being able to gather data on some sharks.
Shark Tagging with National Geographic’s Monster Fish
by Becca Shelton, RJD intern
Thursday, June 21
I have been dreaming of going shark tagging for as long as I can remember and last Thursday morning, I was headed down to Islamorada to join the RJD team for a day in Everglades National Park. Besides being a first timer and the chance to research sharks, there were other reasons to be excited for this trip. First, the boat trip was being sponsored by National Geographic for their show Monster Fish with Zeb Hogan. They bought a satellite tag and they wanted a nice, big bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas), to wear it. After meeting up with Dr. Hammerschlag, the RJD team, the Monster Fish crew and Captain Curt, we loaded up the R/V Endsley and headed out to Middle Grounds in hopes of finding the film crew their shark.
RJD director Dr. Neil Hammerschlag and Monster Fish host Zeb Hogan work up a blacktip shark