Students and educators from Oxbridge Academy spent a day onboard the R/V ANGARI with scientists from Florida University University (FIU) and participated in a hands-on day of shark research.
EXPEDITION DETAILS
March 2, 2026
Palm Beach County, FL
Mia Gabb
William Sample
Chase Schaffhauser
Davon Strickland
Alondra Vidales
All sharks were fished for, caught, studied and released for research purposes under Florida permits held by Florida International University scientists.
As part of our Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks program, students and educators from Oxbridge Academy joined scientists from Florida International University’s (FIU) College of Arts, Sciences and Education for a day of shark research onboard the R/V ANGARI. Both students and educators spent the day learning about and deploying drumlines, a specialized fishing gear used for shark research, as well as building and deploying a baited remote underwater video system (BRUVS).
The group began the day by deploying a BRUVS in a corner of the Lake Worth Lagoon. During the sixty minutes time frame that the BRUVS is required to film underwater for, the group practiced 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.
Students and educators were divided into teams, each responsible for building, baiting and deploying their own drumlines. The group kept the energy high all day and even broke our student expedition record of drumlines deployed, with a total of 30 drumlines throughout the day! No sharks were captured on our drumlines, however, students still demonstrated their skills in shark research methods and learned a lot about a day in the life of a marine scientist.
At the end of the day, the team gathered to review the footage captured by their BRUVS. The footage revealed a very curious nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) and goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara)! The nurse shark swam in and out of the frame throughout the duration of the BRUVS deployment, while the goliath grouper happily rested beneath the bait arm. Seeing these animals on the BRUVS was a great end to the expedition and students collected important data that can help give scientists a better understanding of life in the Lake Worth Lagoon. We had an awesome day out with this group from Oxbridge Academy!
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.
