Student and educators from Palm Beach Day Academy joined scientists from Florida International University (FIU) for a an exciting day of shark research onboard the R/V ANGARI.
EXPEDITION DETAILS
May 12, 2026
Palm Beach County, FL
Victoria Goldner
William Sample
Lacy Smith
Emily Spurgeon
Alondra Vidales
All sharks were fished for, caught, studied and released for research purposes under Florida permits held by Florida International University scientists.
For the final youth expedition of the 2026 spring semester, the R/V ANGARI crew welcomed aboard students and educators from Palm Beach Day Academy for a Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks expedition. Scientists from Florida International University’s College of Arts, Sciences and Education (FIU) joined the group for a beautiful and exciting day of shark research offshore of West Palm Beach! Students and educators learned how to build and deploy baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVS), as well as how to utilize the footage captured to assess the population of different marine species in an area. Additionally, the group learned how to build and deploy drumlines, a specialized type of fishing gear used for shark research.
The students from Palm Beach Day Academy began the day by breaking into teams to assemble and deploy a BRUVS in the Lake Worth Lagoon. While the BRUVS sat and recorded on the seafloor, students worked with the science team to apply their marine species identification skills to BRUVS footage previously captured on R/V ANGARI expeditions and clips submitted to the Global Fin Print project.
Next, the team headed offshore and students and scientists began assembling drumlines! Each drumline consists of a concrete weight, monofilament line, circle hook, bait and buoys. Throughout the day, the team caught four sharks in total! Two male tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier), one male bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) and one male Atlantic sharpnose shark (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae) were all studied and safely released. Students were invited down to assist with the scientific workup for each shark, which included taking different body measurements and tissue samples, as well as fitting each shark with a spaghetti tag from the NOAA Cooperative Shark Tagging program. The largest shark caught, one of the male tiger sharks, measured 350cm long while the smallest shark caught, the Atlantic sharpnose, measured only 68cm long!
After a busy and exciting day of fieldwork on the water, the team headed back into the Lake Worth Lagoon to review their BRUVS footage and debrief their experience. The BRUVS footage revealed a curious nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) checking out the bait cage! We are grateful for another exciting day on the water with students from Palm Beach Day Academy for our Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks 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.
