JERFSA students and teachers participated in a daylong expedition onboard R/V ANGARI to study sharks and marine life alongside FIU scientists.
EXPEDITION DETAILS
September 20, 2024
Palm Beach County, FL
Gina Badlowski
Mia Gabb
Sophia Hemsi
William Sample
Davon Strickland
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 teachers from Jupiter Community High School’s Environmental Research and Field Studies Academy (JERFSA) came onboard R/V ANGARI to learn about and participate in shark research with scientists from Florida International University’s (FIU) College of Arts, Sciences & Education. Participants were taught how to use specialized drumlines for shark fishing and actively participated in all parts of the research, from assembling and deploying the baited remote underwater video system (BRUVS) to capture underwater footage of marine life, to building, deploying and recovering drumlines to catch sharks.
After a BRUVS deployment in the Lake Worth Lagoon and some friendly team competition to hone everyone’s marine species identification skills with curated Global FinPrint BRUVS footage, the research vessel headed offshore to deploy drumlines in hopes of catching sharks. Each student team was responsible for their drumline and were tasked with baiting the circle hook, feeding the line out and throwing the buoy. After a one-hour soak, teams pulled in their drumlines to check for sharks and rebait and redeploy. Though no sharks were caught, participants actively practiced hands-on shark research methods and learned a lot about local marine life and data collection techniques utilized by scientists.
After the last drumline was pulled and disassembled, participants reviewed the BRUVS footage they had collected earlier that morning in Lake Worth Lagoon. The footage captured a tidal change in the lagoon, and students observed improved visibility from murky green to clear blue as the hour passed. The students identified small fish species, like pinfish, mojarras, juvenile grunts and minnows. The importance and unique opportunity to observe a tidal change and changes in fish behavior on camera was also discussed among the group.
The expedition concluded with meaningful conversations with the scientists onboard about future career prospects in the field of marine biology and science. Students and teachers also discussed local opportunities for student involvement in marine science and conservation.
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.
