History and the Future

Before coming to Bimini two weeks ago I began to read Hemingway's Islands in the Stream in anticipation of my trip. I finished the book last night after many twists and turns and finally ending in a complete different direction than where it started.....Bimini. This small island has not only been home to artists, authors, and world class sportsman, but also a pivotal place for smugglers throughout American history. During prohibition smugglers used the island to rum run, during the 80's and 90's they smuggled drugs, and currently the big business is the smuggling of aliens into the United States. During one of our assignments this week we utilized one of the small creeks on the east side of the North Island called smugglers pass. During the drug heyday, the channel was used as a drop off and pick up spot for drugs asthe platforms can still be seen today. Bimini is changing drastically because of the development of a huge resort and casino on the northern part of the north island. The nurseries of the lemon shark and other fish are being disturbed significantly because of the destruction of large amounts of mangroves in the North Sound. I will talk more about this at a later, but it is a very large issue encompassing which the future of the island.

During the week I was on a crew that utilized gill nets in hope of catching juvenile lemon sharks that would be used this week by a visiting researcher. However, the one shark we caught over a 7 hour period was too large for safe handling and to be honest no one at the lab could correctly identify the species of shark it was and the photos are being sent to a professor at FSU. Despite an unproductive day catching sharks I found three very large conch and caught a lobster....so the day wasn't ruined. One day my group put SURs (Submersible Ultrasonic Receiver) back into their housings around the research areas. These work by passively recording the identifications of the sharks that swim past to get a general location of where the sharks are swimming.

Our nights are spent either playing tennis, playing pictionary (which is hilarious to watch foreigners play), or watching movies. We recently watched SharkWater, a documentary about shark finning and the devastating effects these practices have not only on sharks but also on entire ecosystems. These wasteful practices where the shark is caught, fins are cut off while alive, and then rolled back into the water to sink to the bottom is driven by a greedy oriental market for shark fin soup. Shark fin soup is merely a status symbol and ironically the shark fin itself has very little taste. However, these are the same ruthless markets that are ruining other fish stocks around the world- but if I talk about that this blog would turn into a novel. However, I really suggest watching the movie. All 9 segments of it can be found on YouTube or it can be easily rented. Here's a statistic to end with........ every year on average 5 people are killed by sharks............more people are killed by vending machines than sharks. So long for now.....

Cracked Conch and Days on the Water

Beep Beep Beep.......Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep......Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep.................Beep Beep Beep......Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep......Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep. These are the noises that I am going to learn to love as we recently had our first day in the field tracking juvenile lemon sharks in the north sound. The sequence above is transmitted by a small radio transmitter about the size of your pinky finger implanted inside the body cavity of the shark. From the sequence above we are able to identify this shark as shark 378 and we tracked this shark for about 4 hours while he swam through the mangroves. Tracking these sharks helps identify their home-range and determine if the construction of a large resort and the consequential destruction of almost half the mangrove shoreline is having an impact on the lemon shark nursery. I have no complaints about spending my entire "work day" on the water.

My second check of the long line was a success as we found a 258cm tiger shark on the line. I took the DNA sample of the large shark and have some good pictures of it. Trying to hold onto the dorsal fin of the beautiful shark was extremely tough because of the immense strength of the shark. The group that hauled the lines had the luck of catching two more tiger sharks that I was not able to see. However, I got to watch two surgeries for the removal of the radio transmitters from previously tracked sharks. It was really cool being able to watch the shark put into tonic (hypnosis) while they performed the surgery. The following days were filled with class after class, but thankfully they are done and I am ready to spend every possible day on the water. For now the adrenaline filled activities are over, but I am sure they will be here again before I know it. We had the day off today and spent the day exploring the North Island which was very interesting and had my first cracked conch which was delicious. We finished the day with a snorkel on a rock formation called three sisters. It was a very pretty snorkel but was a long swim to get out there and to get back. So long for now......

First Shark Dive

From Bimini

Here is a link (click the picture) to the video from the shark dive/snorkel we did yesterday. It was unbelievable as you will see from the video. Sorry the video is unedited but you will see how close we were in the water to the sharks. If the sharks got too close, we were told to kick them to fend them off, but most of the time before the fin actually hit them they felt the difference in water pressure from the fin and skirtted away. At one point (may or may not be on the video) they got really close because when the director was throwing a chunk of bait into the water his hand hit the T-top on the boat causing the bait to fall short......right in front of us.

We had a series of other classes yesterday as well and started the once a month long line. I was part of the group that had to go out and check the 5 long lines at 1am. We caught two blacktip reef sharks and so far are the only group to catch sny sharks. I am going back out at 10 to check the lines again. So long for now....

First Day in Bimini

After much anticipation of my trip to Bimini, I am finally here and speechless at how beautiful it truly is. The flight in the nine seater was a little interesting, as the book "Pilots guide to the Bahamas" was on the floor in the cockpit. The lab is identical to the pictures on their website (basically a double wide trailer), but it was bigger than I was anticipating. I am sharing a room with Jon (Yawn) from Switzerland, , and Tyler from Vermont.

We had a class on longlining yesterday as we are setting the long lines tonight. This is done once a month to check the overall population of sharks on Bimini. We will be checking the lines every 4 hours and if something interesting is caught the entire lab will wake up to go look at it. They haven't set the schedule for the checks but I would be up for one of the midnight checks. We have a class on shark handling this afternoon and a shark dive this morning. I will be sure to take lots of pictures. So long for now

One Week Away

It's one week from my departure to the island of Bimini and I am extremely excited to start the next chapter of my life and pursue my love for marine conservation. I will be keeping everyone up to date through this blog since many people have asked that I email them during my trip. My goal is to use this not only as a way to keep you guys up to date on the activities and projects I'm working on while at the Sharklab but also as a way for me to reminisce about my experiences far beyond my return in April. I will be posting pictures and videos from my daily activities down at the lab and will hopefully do it on a daily basis depending on the availability of internet and my schedule at the lab.