We got so many different species.

They'll probably give us a little bit of a rodeo while we're handling them.

Go!

It’s a shark!

Kaitlyn!

This is a lot of sharks all in once.

It’s a little - It's just a tiny bit of stress.

We’re going to.

We're going to hope for the best.

I'm Jasmine Graham.

Marine biologist and shark scientist.

And I'm here in Biscayne Bay for the first day of our Diversifying Ocean Sciences workshop - a year long program where students learn all about ocean science, and then they get to apply those skills for a week long intensive hands on experience aboard the Garvin Today, we'll be doing what's called a shark survey, where we'll go out catch and release some sharks, take some samples, which we will use to understand the health of the population here This helps us better understand the species that are here, how plentiful they are, and study the human impacts facing sharks in this area.

There's a lot of really incredible species found here several of which actually use Biscayne Bay as a nursery ground for their young.

Nursery grounds are super important for endangered species because if they don't survive that's how we have continued decline of species.

So if you have a healthy nursery, you have these sharks making it to adulthood, reproducing and replenishing the population.

So we really need to find some little baby black tips.

Again, adorable.

We love baby sharks so it would be really nice to get some data for that species.

Participants are going to learn a lot of really cool things.

They're going to learn how to do what's called a long line.

They're going to learn how to set drumlines.

Oh that was so heavy.

Right.

They're going to learn how to take scientific data from sharks, including measurements tagging, fin clips, muscle biopsy, and they'll also get to watch how we draw blood.

Today we're doing one of our shark surveys Hey, guys.

I'm Amani.

I'm also one of the co-founders of Minorities in Shark Science It is an honor to us at Minorities in Shark Sciences to provide opportunities I'm from Bangalore it’s a land locked city in underdeveloped countries like India, you can’t do a lot of live shark based research because of funding that we received there or the kind of platforms that we have.

so this workshop is like really cool to be very close to a live shark I’m pretty nervous to handle them But equally, I want to like collect good scientific data that can help improve scientific, you know, the knowledge within the world.

All of our diversifying ocean sciences participants are early career emerging scientists that are eager to get into the field of ocean research.

We're going to be long lining.

And typically with this type of fishing we’ll usually catch smaller sharks.

So one of the things that I really hope we catch is a black nose.

These are a little bit of a smaller species.

They often have this little black splotch on their nose.

Another shark that we might catch is a smaller blacktip.

A dead giveaway for these guys is that their fins will have black tips on them.

And this really beautiful gray kind of lateral stripe right on the side of their body.

We also might find a nurse shark which I absolutely love.

They're just completely brown.

They're really kind of flat faces.

And the last species that we may or may not catch is a bonnet head.

They have that cephalofoil but it's shaped like a little bonnet and they are incredibly tiny in comparison to the larger hammerheads All right.

So for this demonstration, we are going to use our friend Vana White shark here so we can work the shark up as fast as possible, get them back in the water.

So very important.

This is the bitey end, this is the slappy end.

This is where you live right here, away from the bitey end and away from the slappy end.

So we take the fin clip from the dorsal fin.

And we use that for genetics.

and then the next job is tagging.

It's sort of like an identification number.

So the way that we do this, we have our tagger.

So we push in.

And then we'll just give that a little tug, make sure that stuck in there.

And then one more time you're going to want to read that number out nice and loud for the data person.

and that's how you work a shark.

So this is a tuna clip.

We’re going to be clippling that on to the black line.

So here we have our anchor.

You are going to go travel across this line you’re going to see a red part of the line This is what buoys are going to be attached to.

So you’re going to have a buoy on each side with a tuna clip on it and then we’re let it go out while we are setting it.

So we just set our two long lines, and we are waiting.

They’re soaking for about an hour and we'll go and haul them in.

See what we get.

All that being said, who knows what we're going to catch?

Who knows if we catch anything?

That's why they call it fishing, not catching.

Go!

Shark!

Alright, guys.

We have a shark.

Bow.

Bow.

Bow.

“Shark” “Shark” So here we have a black nose.

Chris is about to draw blood.

There’s someone with a stopwatch, that records to help measure stress physiology.

So we're going to have someone take a biopsy or a muscle tissue sample, which we can use to look at stable isotopes and also toxins in the sharks.

we will put a tag in it and take a film clip for genetics this part of the shark doesn't have as many nerve receptors in, say, our body.

because it's not an evolutionary advantage for them.

So they've evolved to not feel as much as we do.

And we will a second blood to look at how it's stress went up or down from the workup.

And then we will release it.

Bye!

Bye!

And right now, we have, uh, a line of sharks.

So there are two sharks behind this one.

Trying to move a little fast cause we've got a traffic jam, so to speak.

It's important to move fast some sharks are what we call obligate ram ventilators meaning they have to keep swimming to breathe.

There are other sharks that can buccal pump like nurse sharks and lemon sharks where they can just sit on the bottom and they use their muscles and their cheeks to pull water over their gills.

So they don't have to swim.

so our obligate ram ventilators need that PVC pipe in to simulate what it would be if they were swimming.

They do have water flowing over their gills so they're getting oxygen, but their bodies are designed to be in water.

So they're actually feeling more gravity than they're used to when they're out of water.

So we try to move pretty quickly.

Trying to get them back in the water so that, um, they can go on and live their lives.

Another one!

They got that platform nurse shark on this longline, This is a lot of sharks all at once.

It's just a tiny bit of stress, We have another one that needs to skip the line here.

101 There is moments where things are going to get a little where things are going to get a little hectic and stressful.

It wasn't terrible.

It wasn't that bad.

Was a little stressful.

We grab a fin clip to look at its genetics and learn more about it now.

Yeah, it wasn't that bad.

I feel, I feel like peace right now.

Now we have a blacktip a big chunky blacktip.

so black tips, gets be much larger than the black noses.

My favorite thing about these black tips they have this very pretty little like Z for Zorro on the side of their body, they're really cool.

So we just saw a blacktip, which happened to be a re-tag.

And I absolutely love when we get re-tags.

This means that we tagged it previously either this year or another year.

In this case of that black chip.

We tagged it back in April of 2019, and we just caught it today in 2023.

And with all of the data that we've been taking all week, one of the things that we can see is how much the shark has grown.

So I always really love when we get a recapture because it really gets to kind of bring that data collection full circle and see kind of how they're growing and how they're behaving and if they're actually staying in the area.

Shark!

It’s really exciting, especially having that direct contact with the shark.

So it's a really special moment for you.

When you’re like, Oh, this is what I want to do.

This is what I like.

So yeah, it's it's a crucial moment in your life.

I think, That’s for sure.

Sadly, our time has come to a close.

But this is, see you later.

Not goodbye.

Keep us up to date on what you do, where you go.

Ow, ow, I had no idea that I was going to get the hands on experience that I did.

There was plenty of times that I was, like, scared or nervous, it was more of like the excitement and being able to learn, like, kind of overrode my nervousness and fear.

But it was, it was a great experience overall.

Each step of the way, there was always someone there next to me to help me.

My very first time that I got to see my first live shark was when I came to the U.S. here as part of MISS fellowship.

This was my first time to do lot of these techniques.

It's an opportunity that the MISS has created for me.

Just having to fly all the way from India to U.S. which took me almost two years.

I'm not a person who would like scream or screech out about my enjoyment, but deep down I was like crying because I got to see my first shark it's also a lot of different emotions of which I really don't know how to express about it.

So that’s how I felt.

I always find it so fun when people see their first shark and that initial smile that they get just brings me so much joy.

Yeah, especially since we got so many different species.

That's pretty rad.

And I think that they learned a lot, too.

Which I feel like was an exciting experience for them.

Yeah, I think that these types of workshops are so meaningful, especially just getting to have a bunch of people of color and women on the boat.

Oh yes.

Your first experience.

Yeah, I can't imagine.

That’s so rare, I think things would have been so amazing if my first experience had been like this where it's just a bunch of women of color.

Especially to have mentors that look like you is just so impactful.

It makes me really happy, especially when students tell us that they're excited and that they didn't think about it as a career path because it makes me feel like we're actually making a change and like doing something that we wanted to do when we started.

They're really excited.

We had several people that were like, Oh, I never really thought about sharks, but you just opened up all of these possibilities and I’m like, It worked!

Yes!