We just got back from an amazing trip last Tuesday! As always, we left early in the morning and
were fortunate enough to catch the tail end of the Perseid meteor shower as we
drove to the boat ramp. On our way to
the field site we saw the sun rise over the water and the mangroves, and then
got right to work catching sharks. On the
first live, we caught two sharks, 79 and 85 cm total length, and surgically
implanted the smaller individual with an acoustic transmitter so that we could
track its movements. Surprisingly, the
larger shark was an individual we had caught and tagged in July, and is one of
the first sharks we’ve recaptured in the last three years! After only a month, the shark has grown 2 cm
and gained 1 kg in body mass; the scar from the surgery has completely healed,
and one of the sutures had already dissolved, and the other marks from tissue
collections were healing (see the picture of the fin clip). On the second set, we caught three more
sharks (74, 81, and 104 cm TL), and acoustically tagged the 81 cm TL shark to
track its movements. After only a few
hours on the water he had caught five sharks and deployed two
transmitters! On the third set we caught
another shark (104 cm TL). What an awesome day! And, we got to hang out with a dolphin for a
little while on the ride back. We won’t
be out again until I get back from the Keys in September, but I’m looking
forward to more days like this in the future.
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