Friday, October 14^th 2011 – Saturday, October 15^th 2011

With the sun shining and calm seas the group from Our Lady of Lourdes Academy (OLLA) and the RJD team set out from Key Largo. Everyone enjoyed a peaceful ride, and some even a nap on the way out to University of Miami’s new station at Broad Key. Spirits and hopes were high for RJD’s second sharking trip at the Broad Key Research station. The first expedition down to Broad Key was during the first week of August and, if not mistaken, brought lemon sharks, bull sharks, and even a great hammerhead!

Today, the day would prove to be not as lucky. The first round of 10 drumlines did not provide us with a shark, but the ladies and team were not deterred. Shark cheers were done and the students and interns sang to encourage the sharks’ cooperation, and finally on the sixth line of the second round a nurse shark was brought to the boat. Measurements, a fin clip, and blood samples were taken quickly and our first shark swam off in great condition with a new tag! The weather slowly changed throughout the day and dark clouds in the distance threatened us with rain. Luckily the rain held off until late at night and we were able to tag and take samples from one more nurse shark from our remaining 14 lines.

Back on Broad Key we got time to relax and were treated with a beautiful sunset and a bonus of two lemon sharks caught right off the dock. Both sharks received spaghetti tags, were sampled, measured, and released in great condition. Burgers and s’mores were roasted and the day was put to rest.

The second day we got an earlier start and everyone was excited for a great day on the boat. Unfortunately a front had moved in over night and we were dealt a cold and very windy day. Despite the conditions, the girls from OLLA were very spirited, singing to the sharks. Not a single hook made it into the water without a kiss for good luck. Despite the best efforts of the RJD team and the OLLA ladies, the second ever strikeout for the RJD program was recorded; we caught nothing. Interesting to note, the first strike out occurred on an equally windy and rainy day. Seems as if sharks tend to get a little lockjaw on days when the weather is not the best. Comparing the sample sizes across different weather conditions would be an interesting analysis. In the words of our director, Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, with shark populations declining quite rapidly, we should feel lucky every time we see a shark at all. The lack of sharks that were caught on the trip just goes to remind us how lucky we are to work with the animals we do (when we do), and how important the research and conservation work that we do is.

Even without many sharks being caught and uncooperative weather, I think it would be safe to say that everyone on the trip had a great time. The AP Environmental class that joined us out on Broad Key was able to learn not only about sharks, and the research we do with them, but they had a chance to do real fieldwork in the mangroves and seagrass beds as well. We would like to thank everyone from Our Lady of Lourdes Academy for coming out with RJD to tag sharks and for their great enthusiasm and cooperation.

Till next time, keep spreading the shark love!

Evan Byrnes, RJ Dunlap Intern

Saturday, Sept. 24^th 2011

One of my favorite things in life is my involvement with the RJ Dunlap Program, if not my absolute favorite thing. I just moved back from California a few weeks ago and I was absolutely itching to get back on the water with my shark-loving team. Come Saturday’s conclusion all I can say is that the love was only reinstated.

The day’s trip was unusual in that we didn’t have students on the boat, but rather a group representing Inktel, donors to the program. However, two of the members brought some young’uns along.

Working for the past several months with children and young adults, I’ve realized how amazing an opportunity it is to be able to have a place in young people’s lives. Even if only for a day you can offer them something new, provide a different way to look at something, you hold the opportunity to initiate a change/flick a switch, and I think that’s a big part of what we do at RJD. It’s about science of course, but it’s also about sharing that science with more and more people and getting people excited about the ocean, so they’ll want to protect it and actually care about the science.

Isabella and Ben, the two 6^th graders on board were already happy to be with us, so it didn’t take too much convincing to get them involved. Isabella was set on studying marine science one day and wants to be on the Discovery channel… though I told her we might be competing for that spot. She had her hands in the bait box stuffing the chum crates before we could stop her.

And then there was Ben. Ben is an example of my favorite case of child on the water. He was quiet at first, didn’t want to even think about touching the bait and had never been snorkeling. Not only did Ben get to go on his first snorkel, but he got to do it with several of the seven nurse sharks we tagged that day. I was so happy for him, so proud. The look on his face by the end of the day hardly resembled the child that stepped aboard that morning.

And this was just the kids. You should have seen the faces of the adults!! They couldn’t stop saying how cool it was, and they’re right. Sharks are really really cool, and it is just absolutely AWESOME to be able to share the experience of trying to protect them through our research.

Though we may not have gotten a wide variety of species, we got people excited about the two species we did see (we caught two Caribbean reef sharks in addition to the nurse sharks), which is the first step in raising awareness for these amazing creatures. So get pumped everyone, this is the beginning of a great new season.

RJD Inktel Sequence_2

Extremely lucky,

Virginia, RJD Intern

Wednesday, July 13^th 2011

Driving down to the keys on a Wednesday morning was strange. Normally the long single road through the Florida Keys is quiet; the only signs of life are the fishermen on their way to their boats. On our drive down on Wednesday morning however, the road was bursting with people driving to their places of work; I doubt none of which were as exciting as ours!

Even at 8:30 am the temperature down in Islamorada was already in the high 90’s, which made loading the drumlines and other gear onto the boat a hot, sweaty task. Luckily, the wind out at sea made the heat more bearable for the remainder of the day. We had the pleasure of having a group from Santa Monica High School in California join us on our trip. The kids that had traveled all the way from California to come on this trip were all very excited and couldn’t wait to see their first shark! Unfortunately, even with all the sharky vibes, our first 10 lines at the reef yielded nothing. Fortunately, just as the moral of the group was turning for the worse, round two brought us a beautiful 301cm hammerhead on the first line!

This male was named Siorcan from the word Siorc, which is Gaelic for shark, in appreciation of the donation to RJD by Goldman Sachs. After attaching a satellite tag, and performing the other necessary tasks, we released Siorcan and followed him for a couple of minutes while he cruised along the surface. What an amazing experience!

On line five we picked up a large amberjack, which somehow managed to swallow the large barracuda head baited on the line. Wild. Later on in the day we reeled in another gorgeous hammerhead. This one was a bit smaller than the previous shark, at 270 cm. The female was named Laura in honor of Laura Bracken (RJD science and education specialist) and Laura Rock (devoted RJD intern for over 4 years). After fitting her dorsal fin with a satellite tag, and giving the students time to touch the shark, Laura was released in great condition. On the next line we found a 160 cm goliath grouper on the hook. Captain Curt successfully managed to release some air from its swollen air bladder and push it back below the surface in the hopes it was able to swim back to the depths to live another day.

The only other sharky excitement for the day was an 110 cm blacknose. The blacknose was measured, biopsied, tagged with both roto and spaghetti tags, and blood sampled. The group from Santa Monica High School was able to get a great photo-op with the blacknose before it was released in great condition.

Although it was a relatively slow day, it was my first trip of the summer so it was great to be back on the water with the RJD crew.

In the hopes of tagging more sharks next time!

Josh Levy, RJD Intern

 

Wednesday, June 22^nd 2011

A slew of late-June trips saw our team returning to the biologically rich waters of Florida’s Gulf Coast (near Ft. Myers) for a 3-day research trip with Florida Gulf Coast University. You may remember from previous entries that our sampling trips in Ft. Myers are generally quite high-octane, usually involving the satellite tagging of several tiger, hammerhead, and bull sharks, as well as sampling from some pretty feisty blacktips. Our last trip to Ft. Myers broke that streak unfortunately, crushing our high hopes and leaving a bad taste in our mouths. This blog earns its name from Green Day’s 2004 hit song….in fact, stop reading for a second, open your iTunes or Youtube and listen to “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” while you read. This way, you can live vicariously though a couple of tough days of research.

Anticipations were high as a local television crew seeking to document some of the shark research and satellite-tagging program joined our team. The drumlines went in as usual, an hour later the lines were pulled up, and baits were still present. This trend became the norm for most of our trip in Fort Myers. Where had all the sharks gone? Every ten or so we were greeted by a nurse shark, each of which were promptly worked on—measured, biopsied, blood sampled, conventionally tagged, and released.

Luckily, we were able to sample a few blacktip sharks, and even put a satellite tag on a bull shark, which is always a great accomplishment for the ongoing conservation research. But where had all of the larger coastal species gone? Where were the sub-adult tigers we had grown accustomed to at this site? And the elegant hammerheads? The presence of several small blacknose and Atlantic sharpnose sharks on our baits would suggest that the big boys were indeed “out of town.” While these species are not as “romantic” as others we tag, this was a pretty neat observation. It’s always cool when you can see ecology unraveled before your eyes, especially when you can observe the important ecological role of predators such as sharks.

While we missed the sharks during this small window, there is always the chance to research them another day. Where did the big sharks go? While its tough to say exactly, the path back to their home range in Ft. Myers is a undoubtedly a tough one filled with risks….but we are still dreaming of their return.

In hopes of being there when they do,

Austin Gallagher

Saturday, June 18^th 2011

The first set of the summer trips had arrived and it felt way too long since the last time we were out doing shark research! The day was picture perfect at Keys Marine Lab and we were able to bring out a group from Deering Estates and also some new interns, aka “newbies,” to join in our adventure for the day.  After everyone had settled in and instructions were given, it was off to Everglades National Park to set the drumlines in the water. To increase our chances, we made each of the students putting in a drumline kiss the bait for an extra bit of good luck. At first they were a bit skeptical, but got the hang of our superstitions rather quickly!

After putting the drumlines in quite fast, the infamous “10 drumlines in the water” phrase was yelled and it was now off to rest and relax before the hard work began. Getting ready for the first set there was excitement building in the air. “Did kissing all our bait really bring us more luck?” As the first line of the day was being brought in, we were about to find out. There was tension right away as the line was spooled in and beheld at the end was a nice female blacktip, approximately 158 cm long. Starting off on such a high note, the students and the “newbies” buzzed while bringing in the other nine drumlines. Unfortunately, there were no other sharks on our lines for the rest of the first set. Would the second set bring us more sharks? Hopefully.

Just like in the first set, one shark was caught on the second set. It was a female lemon shark whose total length was 208 cm. Along our second shark of the day, we were also able to bring up a ghost crab trap that had gotten tangled in our line. Covered with tunicates and sponges, the students had a chance to look and explore makeshift habitats for other marine organisms.

Finishing up our second set and including our third, we did not have the chance to bring up any sharks. However, on our fourth and final set, we were able to get two more – a female blacktip, around 148 cm, and a male lemon shark that was a total length of 204 cm. The male lemon was deemed to be a bit more special than all the others due to the fact that he was a recapture that had been at large in the water for 813 days! The area we were in, allowing us to resurvey him, was also within the general area in which we first tagged him in March of 2009. When the lemon was first tagged, it was around 186 cm and grew 18 cm over the course of the time he was at large (almost 2 years). The original roto tag on the dorsal fin was missing, but a mark in the fin was still present where it had once been placed. Although the dart tag in the musculature at the base of the dorsal fin was still present, it was removed and replaced with a new one. Our recapture rate is only about 2%, if that, so we were ecstatic to get this male lemon and find him in such great condition, with no signs of damage from the initial set of tags, nor from today’s, and send him off on his way again.

All in all there were a total of four sharks caught, with one being a recapture. It was great to get on the water again and also good to have a new group of interns and students joining the experience. Hopefully this great start of a weekend will lead a summer full of awesome trips and good times just like it!

Elasmobranch love,

Julia Lampe (RJD Shark Intern)