Saving Seafood

Global Threat to Sharks Highlighted in Nature Paper Co-Authorized by Mote Scientists

July 31, 2019 — The following was released by Mote:

A new study in the prestigious, peer-reviewed, scientific journal Nature reveals that major high seas fishing activities overlap significantly with important shark hotspots worldwide.

Study partners point out that North Atlantic blue sharks and shortfin mako – the fastest shark in the sea – have on average 76% and 62% of their space use, respectively, occupied by longline fishing  vessels each month, and even internationally protected species such as great white and porbeagle sharks are at risk of bycatch in such fisheries. The study calls attention to the danger of accelerating shark population declines and disappearance of their hotspots, along with opportunities for more sustainable management of fisheries and shark populations internationally.

The study included 150 scientists from 26 countries who combined their knowledge and data from nearly 2,000 satellite-tagged sharks. Co-authors from Mote Marine Laboratory’s Center for Shark Research have tracked white, bull, hammerhead, whale and multiple other shark species with satellite tags over decades of conservation-focused science, some in collaboration with research partner OCEARCH.

  • Read the full news release from Nature below and view the journal article here: https://rdcu.be/bLze0

Below is a statement from Dr. Robert Hueter, Director of Mote’s Center for Shark Research, who served as a study co-author along with Mote Senior Biologists Jack Morris and John Tyminski.

Read the full release here

NOAA Hollings Scholar Takes a Bite out of White Shark Research

July 31, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Sharks are among the oceans’ top predators and play an important role in the health of marine ecosystems. One of the most recognizable shark species is the white shark. Despite its notorious reputation, little is known about the Northwest Atlantic population of white sharks in comparison to other white shark populations around the world. This summer, NOAA Fisheries’ Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office hosted Rebekah James, a NOAA Hollings Scholar, where she got the opportunity to learn more about these iconic animals.

Rebekah is from Matthews, North Carolina and attends the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She is a rising senior studying Marine Biology and Environmental Science. Rebekah loves to SCUBA dive and is working towards her professional level certifications. This summer, she worked with Dr. Tobey Curtis at our Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Management Division. Her summer project focused on the movements and habitat use of young-of-the-year white sharks during their first winter.

During the summers of 2016-2017, in collaboration with OCEARCH, Dr. Curtis and a team of scientists from several institutions tagged 20 young-of-the-year white sharks off Long Island, New York. This area is considered a summer nursery area for white sharks, but little was known about where these young sharks spend the winter months. Rebekah built on this work by looking  at the sharks’ tag locations during the months of December to April. Her findings confirmed that these sharks migrated south and remained in coastal waters off North and South Carolina throughout the winter.

Read the full release here

How many sharks are there off the Jersey Shore? This scientist wants to find out

August 1, 2018 — Shark fishing is big business in New Jersey.

People come to the Shore from across the state and throughout the region for their chance to hook the ocean’s apex predator. But the thrill only happens if the sharks show up.

But studies of the sharks in Jersey waters have been few and far between. Little is known about how many sharks there are, and when they migrate.

Now, a Monmouth University professor is working with local fishermen to get answers.

Enter Keith Dunton.

A native of Long Island, Dunton came to Monmouth University from Stony Brook University three years ago for the chance to the study sharks. Dunton said he was drawn to New Jersey because there was a lack of shark research in the Garden State, despite the popularity of shark fishing.

Last summer, shark research group OCEARCH conducted their first scientific voyage into New Jersey waters, with the goal of tagging white sharks in the deep ocean.

And the National Marine Fisheries Service has studied the shark population of Delaware Bay. But Dunton aims to create a definitive understanding of the sharks that live off of New Jersey.

Read the full story at NJ.com

 

Researchers feud over shark studies off Cape Cod

October 5th, 2016 — A battle is brewing on the high seas off Cape Cod between two groups of researchers trying to tag and track the growing population of great white sharks.

In September, OCEARCH, a non-profit that travels the globe studying marine animals, launched a short-term project called Expedition Nantucket in federal waters, between Cape Cod and the island of Nantucket.

But biologists from the state Division of Marine Fisheries, who are in the third year of a five-year study of the oceangoing predators, say OCEARCH’s vessel has come close to state waters, where they are conducting their own research. The state experts fear that OCEARCH’s methods of attracting and capturing sharks could alter the animals’ natural behavior, jeopardizing their work.

“We’re scared to death of introducing any bias into [our own research], so we are being very cautious,” said state biologist Greg Skomal, lead researcher of the shark population study, which is being funded by the non-profit Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Rare Great White Nursery Found Off Coast of Long Island, New York

September 1, 2016 — Jaws is back and she’s got babies.

Even though great white sharks have been on this Earth for thousands of years and have held a place in pop culture for decades, there is still little known about these apex predators. Scientists aren’t sure how these animals mate and have never witnessed a great white shark give birth, so recent news of a great white shark nursery in the Northern Atlantic is colossal.

According to Smithsonian, research group Ocearch, led by former Shark Wranglers host Chris Fischer, believes the waters off Montauk, Long Island, in New York may be a sort of baby shark daycare center, after finding and tagging 9 great white shark pups in the area in the last two weeks.

“[This is] definitely the nursery, likely the birthing site,” Fischer tells Jeff Glor of CBS This Morning. “Probably the most important significant discovery we’ve ever made on the ocean.”

Read the full story at People

OCEARCH Tags and Releases Great White Shark Pups For The First Time Off Long Island

August 22, 2016 — MONTAUK, N.Y. — Meet Montauk and Hudson, two young-of-the-year great white sharks just tagged and released off Montauk, NY by OCEARCH and its collaborative team of multi-disciplined scientists.

“This is an exciting marine conservation event right here in our New York seascape,” said Jon Forrest Dohlin, Director of WCS’s New York Aquarium.

“We’ve learned a lot about the adult sharks in recent years, but the pups are still a complete mystery,” said Tobey Curtis, lead scientist and Fisheries Manager at NOAA Fisheries. “Tagging these baby white sharks will help us better understand how essential Long Island waters are for their survival.”

Montauk, a 50-pound, 4-foot female white shark, and Hudson, a 67-pound, 5-foot male white shark, are the first two white sharks tagged by the shark-tagging partnership in New York waters. The tags on these young-of-the-year sharks will allow scientists to track their movements up and down the coast for the next several years.

The team, which includes researchers from WCS, NOAA Fisheries, South Hampton Schools, Florida Atlantic University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Stony Brook University, collected blood samples, fin clips, parasites, muscle sample and took measurements of the sharks. Each sample provides baseline data previously unattainable for great white sharks in this initial phase of life.

Read the full release at Marketwired

Long Island a Possible ‘Breeding Ground’ For Great White Sharks, Experts Say

June 13, 2016 — Ever since the blood-curdling screams of an ill-fated skinny dipper, who met her famous demise in the opening scene of “Jaws,” generations of beach-goers have approached the water with bone-chilling trepidation.

Now, a leading shark research team has said it suspects Long Island might be a breeding ground for great whites and has launched a tagging expedition to be able to determine potential birthing sites.

But the news isn’t reason to panic: Experts agree that swimmers have a greater danger of being killed by a faulty toaster oven — or driving on the Long Island Expressway, for that matter — than being devoured by a shark.

According to OCEARCH Chief Operating Officer Fernanda Ubatuba — OCEARCH is a nonprofit organization dedicated to shark research — if you look at a global shark tracker, five mature female great white sharks have been tagged in the past three to four years, and it seems that “there is certain activity in that region.”

Great white sharks, she said, travel from Florida to Canada, “and you can see their activity sometimes overlaps around Long Island.”

OCEARCH has launched a Kickstarter campaign to tag and research great white sharks in the North Atlantic; that research might help to investigate sample sites and ultimately determine definite breeding sites around Long Island, Ubatuba said.

The team will tag juvenile great whites in New York waters, the campaign site says.

Technology utilized by OCEARCH aims to allow people to see, in real time, “breeding and mating sites for the first time in history. It’s amazing,” she said.

Read the full story at Patch