Shark Days :)

This past year I raised money for shark and sea turtle research. This summer, I had the opportunity to see what the shark money was going towards and be able to share my story even more.

I was invited to Shark Days on Little Saint Simon’s Island. The first day, we went shark fishing. After a little while a 6-foot male lemon shark was caught. It was really neat to see the researchers work on the shark. They also put a tag on the shark. It takes a lot of equipment to work on a shark!

The next day, we went gill netting. A gill net is a net that is really long length wise and it is used to entangle and capture fish. You have to walk the net out into the water and wait. At our first spot, we caught two young of the year (baby!) finetooth sharks and some other fish; however, we didn’t catch any lemon sharks. We then switched to a different spot and we caught a young of the year lemon shark! HOORAY! I helped tag the shark (which was super AWESOME) and named it Puddin‘. We named it that, because it was a lemon shark. Lemon pudding, get it?! Then we put her in the surf and she swam off!

That night, I gave a presentation to other people that were participating in Shark Days. It was so cool to see other people who share the love of sharks too! I had a great time!

WHY are the tags important?

If someone catches a tagged shark and reports it, then the researchers can figure out where important habitats are for these sharks. Then those habitats can be protected and sharks can continue to thrive! YAY! If we don’t, sharks can go extinct and people won’t be able to enjoy these wonderful creatures for years to come! Plus, we need sharks to have healthy oceans. They are super important!

Special thank you’s to Mr. Cohen Carpenter (a naturalist on the island) and Mr. Andrew Lyons (lemon shark researcher) for this wonderful opportunity!