March 5, 2021 — The following was released by Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium:
After more than 40 years of shark science with profound conservation impacts, Dr. Robert (Bob) Hueter retired from his role as Director of Mote Marine Laboratory’s Center for Shark Research in December 2020, becoming a Mote Senior Scientist Emeritus.
Hueter’s shark research has spanned six of Earth’s seven continents, and lately he is best known for trailblazing work in Cuba—including satellite-tagging the first sharks in Cuban waters—and the U.S., where he has combined his roles as Mote Senior Scientist and Chief Scientist for the nonprofit organization OCEARCH to lead groundbreaking studies of great white sharks.
Hueter’s research has produced more than 200 published scientific articles and reports, and his career exemplifies Mote’s mission—conducting world-class research and translating it to benefit the oceans and society. He has testified before the U.S. Congress three times on shark research and conservation and has spearheaded landmark developments—including promotion of the first shark fisheries management regulations in Florida in 1991, and the first international shark fisheries management and conservation conference, held at Mote in 1993, where the first U.S. federal shark fisheries management plan was announced.
Over the years, the exceptional research led by Hueter and his team has included: sweeping surveys of sharks along Florida’s Gulf Coast to document long-term changes in their populations; a satellite-tagging study of record scope with whale sharks, Earth’s largest fish species, that documented their migrations spanning over 5,000 miles; through collaborative expeditions with OCEARCH and partners, successfully tracking 70 great white sharks with satellite transmitters and proposing a model of their life history and migrations in the Northwest Atlantic; leading field research identifying nursery areas for 16 shark species in the Gulf of Mexico; and groundbreaking studies on intensive shark fishing in Mexico’s Gulf of California that documented 160,000 sharks and rays in the fishery over years. He also played leading roles in: providing the first scientific documentation of a shark nursery area in Cuban waters, for the lemon shark; gaining new insights on sharks caught in northwest Cuba’s open-water longline fishery; documenting shark bycatch to support development of fisheries electronic monitoring systems in the Gulf of Mexico; contributing data and expertise to massive, global studies of shark-fishery interactions, reef shark conservation and declines; and more.