A Surprise Occurrence

Today I was lucky enough to spend time in the ocean helping out with another graduate student's research. While this doesn't happen often due to the immense volume of volunteers that our elasmobranch lab has for their work, they needed an extra set of hands and I happily provided my services. The work involved setting out gill nets and pulling in the nets after 45 minutes to collect any and all animals that were caught in the nets. Today we collected multiple shark species and fishes, all for my friend's research. In this photo you can see the Atlantic sharpnose sharks we caught after they had a full workup done. My friend took measurements, blood samples, fin clips, and tissue samples to assess various aspects of the sharks' lives, and these sharks represented 84 individuals she has collected as part of this work. We were lucky enough to catch so many sharks that we finished early, as we ran out of sampling tools and supplies on the trip, though I think running out was good, as it was 100 degrees outside and I was suffering from heat exhaustion by the end of the trip. I love getting to help out my friends and fellow graduate students, as I learn new skills--like how to collect shark tissue samples--and I get to play an active role in supporting research in areas that are very different from my own work.

The research activities were authorized under FWC permit SAL 1092 and supported by the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory.

Next week will be the final week of preparation before I go out to start the sediment incubation period for my final experiment. Stay tuned to see what I'm up to and what goes into preparing a research excursion for sediment collections.

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