Expedition leaders: Dr. Phil Matich and Sorantaa Bain

Crew: Christy, Gabby, Kate, Kathy, Matt and Shirley - Saving the Blue also hosted local marine science students Quintes and Kristin from BAMSI, for multiple, full day experiences with our team.

Introduction

A week long expedition that focused on shark tagging, making new friends and learning about shark species within the local waters.

This Blog Was Kindly Written By Research Assistants Katie day and Gabby Lozada.

Day 1

The first day started with everyone meeting up at the small semi-private airport where we would depart from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Andros Island, Bahamas. As members began to arrive, happy introductions went all around while everyone expressed excitement for the upcoming week ahead.

We checked in, handed off our luggage, and chatted until it was time to take off.  Upon our arrival, we made our way through customs before loading up the taxis and heading to the lodge. As soon as we arrived the team quickly unpacked and prepared for our first activity on the water. While heading out we saw a variety of wildlife. This included an immature barracuda, and wild dolphins, and we were able to witness the wonderful sight of flying fish leaping out of the water and gliding for several feet.

Once out on the ocean, we were given a course on the proper set up of the gear as well as some basic knot tying. The most excitement came when we caught our first shark, a female blacknose! Though we were not able to stay out on the ocean much longer with the sun setting, we all felt excited for the week ahead. We returned, cleaned up, and got ready for the wonderful dinner provided by The Bonefish Club and were given a lecture by Phil on identifying and familiarizing ourselves with the possible shark species we might encounter. Then it was off to bed in preparation for the next day.

Day 2

Early morning preparations included collecting our personal gear, loading up the boat, packing lunches for the day, and making certain to have our reusable water bottles filled and at the ready. The weather promised a bright and beautiful day! 

Once out on the ocean, we worked on setting up the gear and applying the skills shown the day prior. Our first stop was a snorkel in the pelagic ocean. For some, this could be intimidating and yet also an exciting experience as no sight of the ocean floor can be seen. Instead, it's all ocean, deep, blue, and beautiful in every direction. We had hoped to see some Silky sharks but they weren’t around and instead we were graced with rainbow runners. Although no sharks were seen, the experience was one we were all sure to never forget. 

Next up, we headed a little further toward shore and deployed all five of our buoys. Once this was completed all we had to do was wait for the sharks to appear. We had fun talking and getting to learn more about each other as we waited and watched each buoy for any sign of a possible catch. We would know if we had captured a shark if we saw a buoy shift from a sideways position to a vertical position or if we saw what looked like a tug on the buoy. Regardless of movement we regularly check the buoys every 30-45 minutes.

Eventually, we saw what we were looking for and headed over to investigate and discovered our first catch of the day, a Caribbean reef shark! With excitement, we went about our duties and began collecting the measurements of the animal and prepping the tags. By the end of the day, we had succeeded in tagging multiple Caribbean reef sharks.  We also spent the last few hours setting up and then deploying a BRUV. This is a baited remote underwater video that we set and would collect later in the day to review footage.

Before heading back in for the evening, we hauled all of our buoys and collected the BRUV. We all felt the excitement of having successfully tagged multiple sharks in the day. Later in the evening we enjoyed a delicious dinner and wrapped Christmas gifts for a surprise later in the week…..

Day 3

The morning started out with a bit more of a breeze but still a beautiful day and we were ready to get out there.  It started a little quiet but as the day went on we did succeed in catching a nurse shark, a species that is quite prevalent in the Bahamas. The excitement came when one of our buoys showed something big on its end. This turned out to be a female great hammerhead and the first one a few of us had ever seen! She was given a fast, full workup and had the addition of a satellite tag placed onto her dorsal fin with the goal of keeping tabs on her movements e.g. Tracking her. This type of tag sends signals of a sharks location every time its dorsal fin breaks the oceans surface, into air.

We checked each line regularly to see if the bait was intact as well as to reconfirm there was no shark on the line. After a few checks with low action over the tide change we decided to pull our gear in for the day. Switching activities, we headed to do a drift snorkel over a large and beautiful reef. This reef contained a vast garden of corals full of sea fans, gorgonians, sponges, staghorn, and elkhorn corals. A large biodiversity of fish was seen of various sizes and colors. The sight was breathtaking.  For dinner that night, we were served a meal of locally caught lobster. For some of us, this was the first time trying lobster!

Day 4

The day started with a strong breeze, but it was not enough to keep us in. We headed out and those sitting up at the bow were often splashed with waves. Luckily with the wonderful warm weather and quick-drying clothes this never proved to be too great a hindrance. By this time, everyone had a turn at each duty from prepping bait and deploying it, to data collecting and aiding with tagging.

While deploying each buoy, we took note of the depth, location, what the environment was like (e.g. sandy, reef, etc), time of day, and type of bait being used. We caught one nurse shark for starters, but the second shark we ended up catching was an adorable surprise in the form of an Atlantic Sharpnose! These sharks are rare to encounter here, and their full-grown size is roughly 1 meter in length.

With the low tide fast approaching we headed back in a little earlier. This gave us the afternoon to enjoy a little outdoor recreation. A few of us took a trip using either kayaks or snorkeling out to low-tide exposed sand banks across from our cabins. We did some beachcombing and found sponges, crabs, and mantis shrimp scurrying about.

Day 5

Today started out pretty choppy and the wind was bringing fairly impressive waves to ride during the boat journey out. We deployed our gear away from the wind in a new spot and it turned into a very successful day with plenty of sharks tagged.

By the end of the day, we had tagged many Blacktip sharks. We collected our gear and returned to the lodge just in time to avoid the low tide and some heavy rainstorms.

The rest of the evening was spent playing the game ‘heads up’ with each other. This resulted in an evening full of laughs and good humor. After dinner, we finished off the evening by listening to a presentation on predator and prey behavior by Dr. Phil Matich and then we all headed off to bed.

Day 6

Today our day was broken up into many parts. First up, we headed out to fish and were blessed with a number of sharks, including a nurse and a Caribbean reef shark! The sharks, as always were worked up quickly and released.

The second part of the day, and our highlight event, was taking Christmas gifts we had brought and delivering them to one of the schools. We had a Santa suit that even included a pair of Santa glasses, making our volunteer wearing it look quite the part.

Seeing the joy in the children’s faces as they saw us and greeted Santa was heartfelt, making this certainly one of the most rewarding and memorable moments of the week.

Lastly, we quickly stopped at our rooms and collected our swimwear before heading out to Captain Bill’s Blue Hole. Once there, we had a fun time jumping off the dock into the water and snorkeling around the blue hole. The water was the perfect temperature to cool off in! After our swim, we made a side stop to try out conch salad freshly made to order. We had a variety of salads to try ranging from mild to hot. Afterwards, we were ready to call it an evening and head back to the Bonefish Club where we planned to spend the last night together celebrating the fun week.

Day 7

Today was our last day and we all felt the morning blues knowing we would have to say our goodbyes here soon. It had been a wonderful week and we all had made new friends. To start the day off, after breakfast, we headed out to place an acoustic receiver into the ocean. This receiver detects the pings coming from any animal with an acoustic tag. This includes, sharks, rays, and some fish such as tuna!

Afterward, we headed to a shallow area where we sat and watched as lemon and blacknose sharks came in and swam around us. We even caught sight of a Southern stingray that came up close and swam just a few feet from where we were. Seeing these animals up close was a great high point to end the trip on.

We all shared our top favorite moments from this trip and the great memories we gained from it. By the end, we all left feeling inspired and awestruck.  We were all thankful for the ability to participate in this adventure and those who were there to guide us along our way. A special thanks to our team leaders who made this trip run as smoothly as it did and to the Bonefish Club for its hospitality and excellent food. All of us know we hope to do this again someday.

Thank you

Thank you to our research trip leaders Dr. Phil Matich and Sorantaa Bain for guiding the team through an incredibly successful week. A huge thank you to our research assistants for their passion, determination and endless enthusiasm to work hard, learn and produce results. We would also like to thank the Andros Island Bonefish Club for their hospitality, and the hardworking and ever professional Stevano for his top class boating and captaining skills.

Gratitude must also go to Gabby Lozada for her generosity in allowing us to use her imagery in this blog.