How to Track a Fish in the Ocean

Editor’s Note: An international team of scientists is studying lemon and Caribbean reef sharks that live around two small islands off Brazil. Tim Calver, a member of the team, is filing a series of dispatches from the field.

Sunday, March 19
Brazil, Atol das Rocas provides plenty of water for its local sharks, but where’s a baby lemon shark to swim?

The atoll’s sand flats and shallows provide safety for small sharks, but most of these areas are completely dry at low tide. Deep water areas are the domain of large predators, including other lemon sharks. As tides shift, the baby sharks of Rocas must swim to avoid danger — they don’t want to get eaten, but they also don’t want to get left high and dry.

Or this is what we think, at least. We’d like to understand a lot more about where the baby lemon sharks go, and why. And when you’ve got questions like those, you call in a shark-tracking expert.

Shark Surveillance
Brad Wetherbee is on loan to our expedition from the National Marine Fisheries Service in Rhode Island, where he tracks sand bar sharks in [Read more...]