Mapping a Smoother Fishery for Smooth Dogfish

A commonly-used quote from John Shepherd states, “Managing fisheries is hard: it’s like managing a forest, in which the trees are invisible and keep moving around.” This is particularly true for highly migratory species like sharks, for which the full range is often poorly understood…

Sharks and Rays in North Carolina’s Natural Laboratory

I got a nice pre-Thanksgiving surprise when the latest paper based on my dissertation research officially went live at the Bulletin of Marine Science.  This research was presented at the amazing Fish at Night Symposium and will be part of the upcoming special issue focused…

The Scientists of Shark Week 2016: East Coast Edition

Shark Week 2016 is upon us, and this year’s lineup appears to follow the trend Discovery started last year with a more science-based, pro-shark, reduced-fear approach.  David “WhySharksMatter” Shiffman has already weighed in on which shows to watch and which to avoid this year, and…

Gut Check

A few recent papers in the elasmobranch world have turned some popular assumptions about sharks and rays on their heads.  First and most high-profile was Grubbs et al (2016) dismantling the shark/cownose ray/scallop trophic cascade that not only became so entrenched that it actually ended…

Perfect Little Killing Machines: Healing Factor

This long-time-coming installment of the Perfect Little Killing Machines series starts with a story about a shark I got to spend a fair amount of time with.  A couple years ago I was keeping a group of spiny dogfish in captivity as part of a…

Are Dogfish Running the Food Web?

When spiny dogfish come up in conversation, it’s usually in reference to their supposedly ravenous appetites and the possibility that they’re eating other, more economically valuable species out of the ecosystem.  Luckily for the very beginnings of my research career, this has lead to a…

NC Shark Science in the News

The inshore shark survey got some press this week.  Reporter Josh Birch from WNCT rode along with last week’s night trip to capture some North Carolina shark science in action.  We caught a nice blacktip, and adorable baby sharpnose, and a decent-sized stingray on camera,…

Summer of the Shark: Spring Cleaning

Well, that brief break from blogging escalated quickly.  Between a number of housecleaning tasks (both literal and metaphorical) and the onset of field season, I managed to let an entire month slip by without posting.  Which is not to say post-worthy things didn’t happen.  To…

Dogfish Don’t Eat As Much As You Think They Do

It’s been a long time coming, but the work I’ve been doing on spiny dogfish feeding ration has finally seen publication.  For those with access, the paper (published in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management) is now available online (and if you don’t have…

The Summer of the Shark is Back!

Some of you may recall a couple years ago (the summer of 2012) I had a series of posts under the category “Summer of the Shark” recounting the events of my field work trying to survey Pamlico Sound for sharks.  The purpose of that project…