A group of students and educators from Palm Beach Gardens Community High School spent a day onboard R/V ANGARI during a Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks expedition with scientists from Florida International University studying sharks in Palm Beach County.
EXPEDITION DETAILS
February 26, 2026
Palm Beach County, FL
Mia Gabb
Sophia Hemsi
Jordan Meckstroth
William Sample
Lacy Smith
All sharks were fished for, caught, studied and released for research purposes under Florida permits held by Florida International University scientists.
We kicked off our spring semester of Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks expeditions with students and educators from Palm Beach Gardens Community High School! This group had the opportunity to spend a day participating in shark research with scientists from Florida International University’s (FIU) College of Arts, Sciences and Education. Every participant spent the day learning about and deploying drumlines, a specialized fishing gear used for shark research onboard R/V ANGARI, as well as building and deploying a baited remote underwater video system (BRUVS).
To start the day, the team deployed their BRUVS with the hope of capturing footage of marine life that call the Lake Worth Lagoon home. To ensure viable data, the BRUVS must remain filming underwater for a full hour. Therefore, the group used that time to sharpen their marine species identification skills by reviewing BRUVS footage from previous expeditions onboard R/V ANGARI and from the Global FinPrint database! Once the filming was complete, the team hauled the BRUVS back to the surface and headed to a northern section of the Lake Worth Lagoon to begin deploying drumlines.
The students were divided into teams, each responsible for building, baiting and deploying their own drumlines. Every group brought positive energy with each buoy toss and cheered on their teammates as they deployed and hauled a total of 24 drumlines throughout the day! In the midst of deploying drumlines, the team took advantage of an afternoon high tide to deploy a second BRUVS at a different location near Blue Heron Bridge! Though there were no sharks caught, students demonstrated their newfound skills in shark research methods and gained an inside perspective on fieldwork in marine science. At the end of the day, the team gathered to review both sets of footage captured by their BRUVS. The footage revealed a spotted moray eel who was very interested in the bait cage attached to the BRUVS! The spotted moray eel (Gymnothorax moringa) is a great example of mesopredators that often fill the role of sharks and rays in an area when they are not present. Although no sharks were caught on our drumlines or BRUVS, students still collected important data that can help give scientists a better understanding of life in the Lake Worth Lagoon. This group of students and educators brought awesome energy to our day of science-at-sea and we are grateful for our first expedition with Palm Beach Gardens Community High School!
This expedition was made possible with funding from the Palm Beach International Boat Show Gives Back grant program.
CHIEF SCIENTIST
Will Sample is a Ph.D. candidate in the Marine Community and Behavioral Ecology Lab at Florida International University. His current research uses both long-term historical datasets and newer methods, such as high-resolution accelerometry, to study the movement and behavioral ecology of juvenile bull sharks. He specifically focuses on the way these sharks may be transporting nutrients across habitat boundaries, how they may be optimizing their movements to save energy and what the long-term implications of different behaviors they specialize in may be. Will’s research in the Florida Everglades studying the ways sharks move through this crucial ecosystem is important for conservation and informing habitat restoration and management efforts. Will earned a B.S. in Liberal Arts and Sciences from Florida Atlantic University in 2018 and has lived all throughout Florida for most of his life, from Jacksonville to Jupiter to the Keys. He is passionate about community outreach and education, particularly regarding Florida’s natural habitats, and currently serves as lead scientist for ANGARI’s Palm Beach County based Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks program aboard R/V ANGARI.
