Tagging sharks along the GoM

Dr. Marcus Drymon with the University of South Alabama and the Dauphin Island (Ala.) Sea Lab (DISL) is part of a global team of shark researchers working to change the stigma associated with the alpha predator. The research team has identified species, tagged, measured, and weighed more than 10,000 sharks across the northern Gulf of Mexico. The shark monitoring program has identified 24 different species, and has unraveled factors that influence their patterns. Drymon can now track sharks in near real-time with a satellite ‘SPOT’ tag from the mouth of Mobile Bay to the waters off Florida and Mississippi. A group of educators from Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma were onboard the R/V Alabama Discovery during the tagging session. The group was part of the Fins, Fishes, and Fisheries teacher workshop hosted by Discovery Hall Programs at the DISL, and sponsored by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium. (Source: Dauphin Island Sea Lab 07/28/17)