Tagging

The schools have finally started coming back to camp. This is amazing for me, because I've been getting really bored at work since I'm not teaching. I've only had one school group so far. They were fifty seventh graders, split up into five groups. It's a nice change-up also, because we teach differently than we do in the summer since they're only here for 3 days.

This group got an extra special treat. We had just caught 2 nurse sharks the day before, so we tagged the sharks while the students were watching. I've tagged sharks before, but this time someone took pictures for your viewing pleasure.

After Stephan (who is pictured helping me in all of these pictures) scoops the lovely pretty shark out of the holding tank, we have to measure it and check to make sure it looks healthy. We look for obvious signs like scarring or parasites and for more subtle signs about the sharks health.

After looking on the dorsal side, we flip her over to check for these signs on her ventral side. Also, I open her mouth (with a tool, not my hands!) and check to be sure her mouth looks good. She seems very healthy and has plenty of rows of teeth.

When all of this has been recorded, I begin to actually tag the shark. I start by making a very small incision next to her primary dorsal fin. Sharks heal so quickly that there will be no visible sign of the cut after only one week.

Next, I insert the tag.

In this picture, you can see the actual tag a bit better. It's small and yellow. Not large enough to interfere with the sharks swimming or hunting, but obvious enough that if the shark is captured, the fisherman will notice the tag and be able to contact the number/address on the tag with the information requested as well as the shark's whereabouts.

When all of this is finished, the shark is weighed and released. I know what you've all been thinking, isn't this a long time for the shark to be out of the water? No, she would be fine out of the water this whole time, but still we pour plenty of salt water on her. Also, you may have noticed that she's covered up quite a bit in some photos. Covering their eyes helps to calm them down and proves to be much less stressful on the animal.

ScienceFun!

In case I ever complain about my job, please remind me of the amazing week I had last week...

First, I went skin diving at Marker 2 and saw a bunch of hogfish, grouper, snapper, and porgies and queen angelfish and cowfish. Plus I collected some pretty amazing echinoderms like a verigated sea urchin and a sea biscuit.

Then the next day I went skin diving at Looe Key and I saw a nine foot nurse shark!! It was just hanging out on the bottom under a ledge. I was basically laying on the sand on the bottom so I could see the whole thing. It was huge, but I found out they get up to 14 feet. So then I'm super excited about all the different types of coral, and the blue tangs and some baby blue tangs (these are yellow. We have no yellow tangs in the Atlantic, so if you've seen one, you are wrong. It's a juvenile blue tang.) and a bunch of parrot fish, when I start swimming back to the boat and see something even sweeter: a goliath grouper! I'm all excited, pointing it out to my snorkel buddy, when I turn around and see two even bigger ones swimming behind me.  The biggest one was at least 350 lbs. It was pretty much the highlight of my life.

A few nights after that, a key deer doe came up to me and nudged me with her nose while I was sitting on the picnic tables eating Special K cereal. She left when she realized I wasn't feeding her though. I think she's the same one that waits for me between the banana trees when I'm trying to walk to the bathroom at night. She's so sneaky...

To summarize: My job is amazing.