Expedition 86:
Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks - Educator Workshop

Educators from six Florida counties joined scientists from Florida International University’s (FIU) College of Arts, Sciences and Education onboard R/V ANGARI to experience our Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks program firsthand. The two expedition days were part of ANGARI Foundation’s four-day Summer 2024 Educator Workshop on marine science research and conservation around the Lake Worth Lagoon in partnership with Manatee Lagoon and Palm Beach County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management. 

The expedition days began with the educators participating in the assembly, deployment and recovery of a baited remote underwater video system (BRUVS) in the Lake Worth Lagoon to provide non-invasive observation of local marine life and their interactions. This, along with curated Global FinPrint footage, gave all onboard the opportunity to hone their marine species identification and analysis skills. The exciting video footage collected during the expedition depicted a variety of fishes and featured two curious juvenile male nurse sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum) that spent considerable time investigating the BRUVS bait box.

Once BRUVS surveys were complete, the educators worked side-by-side with FIU scientists to learn about and put into practice a research technique to fish for sharks offshore of Palm Beach County and within the Lake Worth Lagoon. They employed specialized research fishing gear, known as a drumline, that is designed to minimize animal stress using circle hooks and a configuration that allows sharks to continue to swim freely after being hooked. The participants enthusiastically participated in the assembly, baiting, deployment and recovery of the drumlines, and were rewarded with eight sharks, including seven nurse sharks and one great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran). Brief scientific workups, consisting of gathering length measurements, identifying sex, collecting dorsal fin tissue samples and attaching a uniquely numbered National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Cooperative Shark Tagging Program (NOAA CSTP) identification tag, were performed on the sharks prior to their release. While the educators were only able to observe the scientists’ efficient workup of the great hammerhead, they were instrumental in the nurse shark workups, and even had the opportunity to feel the sandpaper-like texture of the dermal denticles of the shark skin. Fishing highlights included the opportunity to observe the critically endangered great hammerhead shark in the wild, as well as the recapture of a nurse shark that had been caught, worked up and tagged during a Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks expedition onboard R/V ANGARI in the Lake Worth Lagoon in September 2023, and it has grown 5cm since then. 

The Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks expeditions and programming within the Summer 2024 Educator Workshop was made possible with funding from the Palm Beach International Boat Show Gives Back grant program to ANGARI Foundation.