Students and educators from Conniston Community Middle School spent an exciting day offshore of Palm Beach County conducting shark research with scientists from Florida International University.
EXPEDITION DETAILS
September 22, 2025
Palm Beach County, FL
Will Sample
Sophia Hemsi
Lorenzo Marro-Ambrosini
Lacy Smith
Davon Strickland
All sharks were fished for, caught, studied and released for research purposes under Florida permits held by Florida International University scientists.
ANGARI celebrated its 50th Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks expedition with students and educators from Conniston Community Middle School! This group spent the day participating in shark research alongside scientists from Florida International University’s (FIU) College of Arts, Sciences and Education.
To start the day, FIU scientists taught students how to build and deploy a baited remote underwater video system (BRUVS). Students deployed the BRUVS into the Lake Worth Lagoon for one hour, during which time the students practiced their marine species identification skills. Using BRUVS footage from previous ANGARI expeditions and from the Global FinPrint project, students were able to learn different identification skills and how BRUVS data is used in shark research and conservation.
Next, the team headed offshore to begin setting drumlines, a type of specialized fishing gear used onboard R/V ANGARI for shark research. Each team of students was responsible for assembling and deploying a drumline alongside FIU scientists. The group jumped for joy when the very first line of the day caught a great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran)! The shark was quickly worked up and released by the FIU science team. Students and scientists continued to deploy and haul lines offshore, soon revealing a bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) caught on another one of the drumlines! Students observed and learned alongside the scientists as they performed an efficient shark workup, which included taking several measurements, collecting tissue and muscle samples and tagging the shark with a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Cooperative Shark Tagging Program (NOAA CSTP) identification tag.
Rough seas offshore sent the team back into the calm waters of the Lake Worth Lagoon, where students and scientists continued their research and deployed a new set of drumlines. With two sharks caught and 11 drumlines deployed, it was time for the team to head back to the dock and review the footage from the BRUVS they had deployed earlier that day. The BRUVS captured a curious green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) investigating the bait cage! It was an exciting day of shark research for Conniston Community Middle School and an amazing 50th Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks expedition for R/V ANGARI!
This expedition was made possible with funding from Kenneth S. Morton and West Palm 100.
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.
