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 just me. It looks like…
It’s getting to be that time of year again. Shark Week, the seven-day Super Bowl for shark nerds and casual viewers alike, is celebrating its 25th year this summer. This year it runs a little later than usual (probably to avoid conflicting with that little…
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, and maybe even catch some…
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, before the crack of dawn,…
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 and fisheries management considerably. This…
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 catching, tagging, and following the…
As dramatically imperfect as U.S. fisheries management can be, I still stand by my stance that we have the best-managed fisheries in the world. Fishermen gripe about it being too restrictive and quick to change, conservationists complain about it being too lenient and slow to…
Posts have been a little sparse here for the past month or so, and it’s because I’ve been spending a lot of time a.) finishing up my first year of PhD school, and b.) setting up a new batch of projects set that will keep…
Apologies for the lag time between posts this week. I was going strong, but then the end of the semester reared its ugly head. I’ll likely be slow getting stuff up in the next week or so as I deal with the typical PhD end-of-semester…
During a literature search for some dissertation-related stuff I stumbled upon quite possibly the most awesome paper ever for a shark fan. It’s well-known that sharks, especially large, migratory species, supplement their diet of fish and sea mammals by scavenging on whale carcasses. It’s been…