For my project this semester, I have been trying to tag a shark. At the beginning of this project my main goal was to learn more about sharks and with it I would learn more about the ocean. While I did learn more in these areas, I learned and gained skills that I will use throughout my life. In my project I contacted experts, researched shark tagging, and went through a long permit process. While we are yet to tag a shark, I will be working diligently throughout endersession and summer so that we can tag the shark.
Our project would be very important for both the scientific community and the public. To explain the problem that we are helping to solve we have to go back to the 1950's. At the start of the 50's America had a booming post-war economy, birthing rates were higher than ever, there was big leaps in science and mathematics every day, and the unemployment rates were the lowest that they had ever been. One species that was not profiting from this economic boom was sharks. Sharks were seen as vicious creature with the sole goal of devouring our unsuspected children. This caused mass hysteria and the shark populations dwindled. Fortunately, legislation was passed which protect sharks and the species slowly rose. Today the sharks have made a comeback and are almost are at the point of where they were at before human intervention. With these larger than normal population, shark sightings are getting more frequent and closer to the beach. Because of this researchers need to understand shark population better. One troubling area that we are yet to understand is in juvenile male white sharks. Usually these sharks would migrate throughout the year from the cooler waters of Canada to the warmer waters of Mexico. Instead of this yearly migration however, juvenile white sharks are staying between San Diego and Los Angelas. Our project was aimed at addressing this issue by tracking where these juvenile sharks are swimming, how deep they are swimming, and the light levels that they are swimming in. We started off this project by emailing experts already in the field of research. This included people from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, CSU Long Beach Shark Labs, and NOAA. We quickly discovered that people don't take high school students that are attempting to tag a shark seriously so out of about 30 people we emailed only 2 responded. Our next stage was to make cold calls which turned out to work way better. The next step was to find a tag that would work for our experimentation. The main components that we were looking for were price and attachment method. Surprisingly, this was the easiest part of the project. Within a week we had selected the tag and acquired the funding. Our next step was to get the proper permits. This ended up being a long and lengthy process that I am still working on today but once I get the proper permits I will be able to tag the shark. If we are able to make this work, it can and will be continued in the future. Once we get this news out to the scientific and educational communities it will lead to more funding for better and more advanced tags. Our tag will also provide important information to the scientific community which will help to find answers to questions that are troubling experts. Hopefully in the coming weeks we will be able to get the permits and tag a shark.
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Semester AzulThis semester I am in Semester Azul which is a class with around 20 students of all high school grade levels. We are exploring the vast mysteries of the ocean learning about the ecosystems, climate, and human influence. I hope you enjoy my progression!. Archives
May 2019
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