Category Archives: research

Winter of the Shark: It Pays to Know People

This past weekend marked a new venture into shark-related field work.  For the better part of two months I’ve been fighting the good fight to keep ECU’s acoustic array up off of Cape Hatteras, and last Friday and Saturday finally … Continue reading

Posted in fishing, gill nets, grad school, methods, North Carolina, research, sharks, Winter of the Shark | Leave a comment

Adventures in Acoustic Telemetry

One of the reasons posting has been so sparse lately is that I’ve been busy putting gear together, scheduling, breathlessly paying attention to the weather, and finally getting out on the water to work on the acoustic array off of … Continue reading

Posted in diving, grad school, hurricane, North Carolina, photography, research | 2 Comments

Summer of the Shark: Stingray City

My summer-long (likely into a little bit of autumn) quest to find sharks in the Pamlico Sound took me to the waters of the Neuse River this past Thursday.  I’ve been out on the Neuse looking for sharks on a … Continue reading

Posted in cownose rays, fishing, gill nets, grad school, methods, North Carolina, research, Summer of the Shark | Leave a comment

Summer of the Shark: Back to the Pamlico

Tuesday saw Evan, Andrea, and I head back to the Pamlico River to cover it with the longline (you can see why it was missing last time here) in my brave/foolish attempt to see if there are any sharks in … Continue reading

Posted in cownose rays, grad school, North Carolina, photography, research, Summer of the Shark | 2 Comments

New England Great Whites to be Wrangled

I haven’t written about New England great whites here in a while, though I do chime in about new sightings and info on Twitter.  However, it looks like the sharks of the East Coast are attracting attention from more than … Continue reading

Posted in behavior, new england great whites, research, sharks | 7 Comments

Summer of the Shark: Warts And All, Mostly Warts

Some field days just don’t go well.  This past Thursday I went out with Evan and Jeff to do a little opportunistic shark sampling in the Pamlico River while they were out collecting water samples for a striped bass project.  … Continue reading

Posted in fishing, gill nets, grad school, gross, methods, North Carolina, research, Summer of the Shark, wtf | 1 Comment

Summer of the Shark: Hatteras Blues

Field work season has officially begun.  On Wednesday and Thursday I set out for Hatteras and Ocracoke with labmate Evan and his brother Austin to test the gear, get an idea of how much sampling can happen in a day, … Continue reading

Posted in fishing, gill nets, grad school, North Carolina, research, sharks, Summer of the Shark | 1 Comment

Summer of the Shark: Prologue

As mentioned earlier, this summer I’ll be starting the first of several shark-related projects that should (hopefully) add up to my dissertation.  The first is a summer pilot study that aims to find shark hot spots in Pamlico Sound.  Tomorrow, … Continue reading

Posted in gill nets, grad school, milestone, North Carolina, research, sharks, Summer of the Shark | 1 Comment

Notes on Some of Those 79 “New” Shark Species

By now it’s somewhat old news that a recent study by Gavin Naylor and other researchers from all over (freely available here) has revealed that there may be up to 79 previously undiscovered shark and ray species, which complicates conservation … Continue reading

Posted in conservation, cownose rays, ecology, evolution, North Carolina, research, sharks, spiny dogfish | 2 Comments

Another Round on the Neuse

Late last summer, I embarked with an intrepid crew of Duke grad students to track bull sharks in the Neuse River.  We came up empty-handed that time, but a year later I found myself going back for another crack at … Continue reading

Posted in cownose rays, dolphins, dorkiness, grad school, North Carolina, photography, research, sharks | 2 Comments