Shark Lab Takes On the Florida Keys

We have had a big focus on education and outreach this year in Bimini doing many new and ongoing projects. However, this month we headed over to the Florida Keys to conduct some research. Our focuses included tagging and ultrasounding bull sharks for Master’s student and station manager Jasmine Nyce, satellite tagging great hammerhead sharks, and collecting data from sharks to determine general population structure and trends. We caught 40 sharks consisting of 8 different species for a very successful trip! See the photos below for some of the highlights!

Florida Southern College Course

Earlier this month, Florida Southern College came to the Shark Lab for their annual Shark Biology course led by Dr. Gabriel Langford. The students were so excited, and it was an amazing group. They enjoyed every activity and were so happy to be able to experience the sharks in their natural environment after learning about them in their course for a few weeks. Seeing juvenile lemon sharks was their favorite activity. After returning to campus and hearing the lectures about shark workups and shark tagging from Shark Lab President Matt Smukall, the students conducted their own shark workup on an inflatable shark to complete their course. 

Bimini Primary School Presentation

Outreach Coordinator, Baylie Fadool, and station crew member, Courtney Shea, did a school presentation at the Bimini Primary School for their 4th and 5th grade classes. They talked about the habitats and life that can be seen around Bimini and brought different items from each of the habitats that the students could see and hold. There were so many questions, and the students were so curious and excited. We look forward to doing more school talks in the future!