Professional athletes speak often about
the adrenaline high that carries them through challenging periods of
athleticism. Ask a member of the Shark Lab to describe a longline-caught
shark-workup and you will find the response matches the
adrenaline-fueled recounting of professional athletes.
At
the Shark Lab, you are extensively trained in shark handling and
work-up procedures before you are involved with such an
adrenaline-fueled act as a longline check and work-up. As a repeat
Sharklab volunteer, I knew the exciting possibilities waiting for me on a
20:00 longline check. Making her way out the channel and around the
eastern tip of South Bimini, Twin Vee carried us to the lines set across
the mouth of the Bimini nursery. Sighting the first float of the first
line, the adrenaline begins to slowly leak, as you acutely survey the
line for missing or submerged gangions. Like the pro-athletes would
describe, it’s muscle-memory: holding onto Twin Vee’s rail while leaning
out to sight each gangion, or as we all hope, to not sight one, the
gangion float having been pulled under by the weight of one of Bimini’s
several possible shark species.
To the astonishment of the crew, we had three blacktips (C. limbatus)
that night, all caught on the fifteenth gangion of their respective
line. By the time we finished the first work-up, the air was palpably
buzzing, smiles and high-fives were shared by all. But with the shark
safely off the side of the boat, the adrenaline began to slowly
dissipate, and the attention was returned to scanning the lines for
another submerged gangion.
 |
| A blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) being worked up during a
longline check. Photo by Sophie Hart | © Bimini Biological Field Station Foundation |
When we came upon the second black-tip,
again on gangion #15, the buzz returned. Flood lights on, the team moved
swiftly to bring this female up to the side of Twin Vee. I elected to
hold her first dorsal fin, working to secure her position in the water,
so the rest of the team could perform the various work-up measurements
and samples as swiftly as possible. It was holding this female’s dorsal
where I had a unique opportunity to see very fresh mating scars. The
female’s dorsal side was littered with bite-marks. Elasmobranchs can
heal their wounds remarkably fast; this female’s wounds hadn’t healed
over yet, which indicated the mating event had occurred recently.
Moments like this, a shark less than a metre from your face, with the
types of ecological evidence you normally would only be able to see from
metres away, are the adrenaline-filled moments that litter your months
at the Sharklab.
The night proceeded
with a third blacktip on another line’s gangion #15 – the boat erupted
in astonishment. Smiles and laughs quickly turned to well rehearsed
action, as another episode of swift data collection was underway. Eight
minutes blitzed by and with another successful work-up complete, so too
another blacktip swam away from Twin Vee, an official member of the
BBFSF tagged-elasmobranch club.
