I'm surfing off the coast of Southern California and there are sharks in the water right now.

We can’t actually see them, but we know they're there because scientists have developed a way to track shark populations even when they're out of sight.

This method is called Environmental DNA or eDNA sampling collected from genetic material left behind by animals in the water.

Collecting and analyzing this data is changing how we track marine life.

One scientist has developed some unorthodox ways of collecting this data and involved her community in the process.

Would you surf here if you knew there were sharks?

This is Apryl Boyle, a surfer and shark scientist who's working with her community to collect data to understand the biodiversity of local surf spots.

Thanks for inviting me out to check out your work Apryl.

Of course, I'm so excited to have you here.

So tell me a little bit about what you've done.

I've been surfing my entire life and surfers are amazing community scientists.

Whether or not they've gone to college for science like we have.

We see the water every day.

We see how the shoreline changes.

We have so much knowledge of the coastline that scientists really need to tap into.

The big picture was training surfers how to really contribute as community scientists.

So first I needed a survey and figure out who's afraid of sharks, who's seen sharks in the lineup and what their appetite for environmentalism is.

And one of your papers you mention that the media sometimes has an influence on surfers perceptions of sharks.

Is that correct?

Indeed.

We really wanted to see how much the Jaws effect and all those other types of things had on public perception and whether they believed environmental scientists or what they saw on TV, and whether surfers were really afraid of sharks.

We've seen great whites here, some nine, nine footers who.

Yes, I was scared.

As far as sharks, nothing to fear.

It's all good.

The biggest goal is trying to get that eDNA into understanding what's in the water, and then that will get people more excited, in my opinion, to understand what's there, why they need to protect it.

So I'm assuming this is your eDNA?

Yes.

Let’s take a look at that.

All right.

Collecting eDNA is done in a number of ways.

You just use these little pumps.

So we run the aquarium line through, and it just takes the water and puts it through our filter.

So these filters will take the biologic material.

Once we have this information in here, it goes as quickly as we can into my little cooler because it's got to stay cold and then I've got to ship it up to the lab right away.

Environmental DNA is collected from water samples.

Just like we slough off little pieces of skin and hair throughout our lives, sharks are also sloughing off DNA, which can be collected from a water sample.

And we can sequence that to figure out what animals are present in that water.

We're getting ready to do our eDNA sampling.

So our Environmental DNA, which I know is a very complex process because you've got very, very small amounts of DNA and that whole ocean.

So we're just going to do some buckets today.

It's really choppy.

It's really stirred up today.

Ideally, you're on a boat or something because we are sampling the entire ocean.

Since I happen to know that there are sharks around here, I'm hopeful we can at least catch a little something in our filter and see what we come up with.

Every time I collect data, I do the water quality measurements as well.

I love data.

So taking eDNA, trying to figure out the conditions you got it in.

I always like to see if there are patterns because I'm always a data scientist first.

Also, the temperature, salinity and pH data is useful later on when you look over time, because if you look back at 2020, we were seeing the same sort of pH and salinity in the water.

So that's how we know, oh okay, we're not totally off.

This is what we normally see around here.

So this filter collects biologic material.

We will filter through at least a liter and a half of water and then give it a quick shake, lock it up, put it in the cooler.

And when you have the surfers doing this out in the field, do they have the same setup or how is that different?

It'll be the same setup.

So you see we've got it as small as possible in order to sample.

Getting the community involved and making this easily deployable is so much better for conservation because scientists don't have enough eyes.

We can get these out to surfers who are out every day.

There's hundreds who come out every morning.

So your goal is to take this very complex process and make it so that it's accessible so that people in the community can get involved in this research.

Absolutely.

Then people own the research.

People feel more compelled to take care of their beaches.

So how much information are you able to actually gather from the eDNA samples?

So we can understand if a certain type of shark was around.

We've got whites, makos and some of the prey species they eat.

Certain marine mammals, but not super specific yet.

So you just get a general overview of the biodiversity in the area.

Correct.

Which is really important because we want to make sure that we have a lot of diversity in our ecosystems, because when we lose that, that means our ecosystems are collapsing.

Especially when you're missing things like these very important keystone species, like these apex predators, makos, white sharks, that sort of thing.

When they are removed, you know, the ecosystem starts to collapse.

So it's really important, like you said, for us to know generally what the diversity is like in an area so that we have that in mind when we start thinking about conservation policies.

So without the presence of sharks, we could have the ecosystem disrupted and it could eventually collapse.

For example, if sharks weren't present on a reef to control the parrotfish population, the parrotfish might overgraze on the coral reefs causing them to die.

And if they die, everything that relies on those coral reefs dies as well.

And eDNA is a great tool to check the biodiversity of an area.

These are the species we test for now, which doesn't mean we can't test for more as we have the control DNA so we can really get a complete picture of an area.

So we've done a sample.

Where does it go now?

I ship it up to Greg in the Genidaq’s lab, and they will analyze what comes out of the filter.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to talking to Greg and learning more about the process that he developed.

Hi, Greg.

I'm Jasmin.

Nice to meet you.

Hi, Jasmin.

I'm Greg Schumer.

So I was just hanging out with Apryl and I just wanted to know a little bit more about your process of how you analyze those samples.

So we analyzed thousands and thousands of samples a year.

We do it all from the little capsules that you saw Apryl take.

We receive them and we add reagents to the filter that dissolves all the organic material, and then we can basically extract that liquid out and isolate the DNA from all the liquids.

What we're left with is a pure extract of the DNA that came from the water.

Once we get that out, we can then analyze it in any number of ways.

And you use PCR as part of this process, correct?

Yes, we do.

We do PCR, which will look at different fragments of DNA.

Then we take that a step further and utilize a technique called quantitative PCR or QPCR that we designed to specifically find the target species.

So if you're looking for a white shark or a thresher shark, we can design the PCR to only amplify the DNA from the species that you're interested in.

And how does what you do with your PCR and QPCR, how is that similar or different from the technology that we've been using to test for COVID positive people?

Oh, it's a very good question.

It's the same exact technique.

We use the same machines, we use the same chemistry.

It's just we're not looking for a virus.

We're looking for a species that somebody is interested in, but they do PCR on it and it tells you if the viral RNA is there.

So they effectively are doing Environmental DNA analysis it just happens to be the environment is your nose or your bloodstream or your mouth.

It's the same concept.

It's just we're sampling a much bigger ecosystem, so to speak.

Oh, very cool.

Where do you see DNA being used now and in the future towards conservation management practices?

It's a very sensitive technique, so it's very good at finding rare, endangered cryptic species, especially aquatic species, because that's very hard.

You can't just find a rare fish in the water.

You know, our lab was started on the concept that we could find the molecules of these rare species and then use that to inform management around these these species and the conservation of these species.

Now, you have a lot of people in the field taking these samples because it's not very hard.

You get such a rich data set out of it that gives you a glimpse of that aquatic ecosystem that was previously unavailable.

It's great because we found prey species in the samples we took.

So we know that sharks are close.

Whites really are the ones we most likely see here.

So in this surf, in the lineup, we could very well see sharks.

Okay, so we have a few choices for you.

This'll be safer.

I'm super excited to learn how to surf.

I've only surfed once when I was a kid, and I feel like it's going to be very different now, so.

Well, we'll see how it goes.

What got you into surfing?

Really, I was always obsessed with the water.

I feel like there's something genetic about it, because my father's side of the family's Brazilian, so I have an ancestor that was brought over from Africa at nine years old to Brazil.

And if making that journey, you're obviously a water person.

So pretty sure it's in our DNA.

Must have been so cool to see all the marine life back then, because could you imagine how many sharks were around back in the 1800s?

We know there were many more so.

It's interesting to think about the connection to the ocean.

And this is history that we can touch.

And just having that connection’s so amazing.

There's like this stigma.

Whenever I think of surfers, I think of a California surfer like white dude, blond hair, like, “Yeah, bro.” And so it's like really cool to have learned to surf with a whole group of brown people.

Like, it's very exciting.

I went, “Wow, this is fun.” Yeah, I really enjoyed it.

And I feel like we need more representation just in general in media, but everything that has to do with the ocean.

But it's cool to have these safe spaces, these communities where we can feel comfortable, comfortable to be ourselves.

That's so cool to see that like in my at my age right now, because I never seen that growing up.

I didn't know I was a minority when I first started surfing.

I just thought I was a surfer with everyone else and it was later that everyone pointed out, there are never people that look like me in science or surfing.

In 2019, I actually have the data to back this up.

I was the only black member of the American Elasmobranch Society, the main society for people that study sharks.

And then when we created Minorities in Shark Sciences and then like a year later have 400 people, like, whoa, So we really out here.

You don't see us, you don't see us in media, people don't cite us as much.

We're not as visible, but we're here.

I am able to see like the stats, you know, and it's pretty eye opening how surfing is worldwide and global.

But like you said, it's just not really represented in the media.

That whole thing about surfing is really only 150 years old.

No, for centuries, brown and black people in Polynesia, South America and Africa have been surfing.

And that's a very Eurocentric idea that you could only be a water person or only be a land person.

We know each other and we can help each other shine the light on one another.

Like you have to take the opportunities.

My son, you know, I want Marley to see scientists that have different looks and different backgrounds, so he could feel like that’s something he could do.

We're Ocean People.

That's who we are.

Getting surfers to understand and people to understand why they're important.

That's the biggest goal, is not just take these samples and learn how to do this, because the whole eDNA project was understanding these waves and this ocean's here because there are sharks, is key.

So getting everyone educated on why they're important and how they can play a part so they can take ownership, I think is just really key.

I would definitely surf here, knowing there are sharks here.

It's not going to stop me.

I will probably still go.

It's coexisting, so we know we're there.

They know we're there, but we're all just living happily and just enjoying the same ocean.

This program was made possible in part by the National Science Foundation,