Participants from Royal Palm Beach Community High School enjoyed a day studying local sharks and marine life in Palm Beach County waters with FIU scientists.
EXPEDITION DETAILS
October 4, 2024
Palm Beach County, FL
Mia Gabb
Sophia Hemsi
William Sample
Syra Tanchin
Veronica Zuccolo
All sharks were fished for, caught, studied and released for research purposes under Florida permits held by Florida International University scientists.
Twelve students from Royal Palm Beach Community High School came aboard R/V ANGARI for an exciting day in Lake Worth Lagoon participating in shark research with scientists from Florida International University’s (FIU) College of Arts, Sciences and Education. Throughout the day, students had the opportunity to contribute to local and global research projects like Global FinPrint.
To begin the day, students eagerly assisted scientists with building the baited remote underwater video system (BRUVS), which included attaching the arm to the frame and adding bait to the bait cage, and deploying it within Lake Worth Lagoon. This expedition also provided an opportunity for a second BRUVS deployment in the lagoon near Blue Heron Bridge. The BRUVS results were extremely exciting to everyone onboard! A large southern stingray (Hypanus americanus) was observed at Blue Heron Bridge, and a male nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) showed up at the BRUVS deployment further south in the lagoon. The male nurse shark was a similar size to a shark observed at the same location on a previous expedition, and scientists hypothesized it is the same individual likely local to that area.
Despite some rain early in the day, students eagerly helped the scientists build specialized drumlines for shark fishing and deployed a total of 22 drumlines throughout the day! All the students had several opportunities to participate in the various tasks involved in building, deploying, and bringing in drumlines. Participants baited the circle hooks, attached the weights, fed line out, tossed buoys, and then did the reverse to recover the drumlines throughout the day. Although no sharks were caught during the expedition, students still collected data and learned that catching zero sharks in a day is still important data to record. Participants enjoyed a day filled with valuable, scientific, learning experiences and got to work closely with scientists to study local sharks and marine life in Palm Beach County waters.
This expedition was made possible with funding from the Palm Beach International Boat Show Gives Back grant 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.
