Day 3 we caught and tagged a white shark!
I joined @southernsharklab in the field to deploy animal-borne camera tags on white sharks in South Australia.
We saw three individuals and were successful in the capture and tagging of one! This shark swam off strong and we have been receiving location data from it as it travels around South Australia. I am excited to see what data we get from this shark and will be recovering the camera tag later in the week!
Team work makes the dream work @southernsharklab@charliehuveneers@laurenmeyer9@georgiatiller@biopixeloceans@martipermare@madd.adventures@divingemmathwaites
All research was undertaken with ethics and permits.
#womeninstem #sharkscience #research
Did you know a sawfish rostrum is used as an antenna and a weapon to help the animal locate and catch prey and without them they will not survive.
Unfortunately here in New South Wales Australia sawfish are extinct, what remains are stories, artifacts and logbooks that we want to use to reconstruct their populations and history.
If you know of any artifacts or have photos and stories to share please reach out to me or @sharksandraysau .
Thank you @southerncrossuni for the video!
Student excellence awards 2025
I am honoured to have been named as a finalist for a @southerncrossuni Student Excellence Award for Community Engagement! This was primarily for our Young Marine Biologist Program. This program gives me hope for the future of our marine world, watching as the youth of today engage in complex topics, ask thoughtful and critical questions, and develop skills for their future in marine science!
Congratulations to all the winners and finalists.
Sharks International day 1 and 2
What a conference so far! So many incredible talks and posters with such a diverse range of speakers, systems, animals and tools. We also had 4 inspiring plenaries which all talked about engaging and working with community to achieve conservation success.
In the opening ceremony two questions were asked that have stuck with me:
1. Why do we study these species?
2. How does our work contribute to their future?
I am looking forward to the next three days of the conference, learning more and having many many more conversations about shark, ray and chimera science!
I will try to remember to take more photos the rest of the conference.
@sharks.international
Last minute attendance to @sharks.international !
On Wednesday I decided to book tickets to @sharks.international in Sri Lanka and am currently on my way!
But in a twist of fate I will NOT be talking white sharks (although excited to chat about my PhD work) but instead the critically endangered green sawfish!
If you are attending I have a poster on the 5th of May in set A. For those unable to attend I will aim to share about the conference and my poster here!
See you soon @sharks.international !
The YMB program returns!
14 students embarked on their journey into the marine world in Feburary. This year we have a jam packed program from dissections, turtle care to whales, coral and sea birds.
We are proud to have this program up and running for a second year and are inspired by the drive and passion of the students to learn.
Working with @ngiyambandigay_wajaarr_corp to showcase connection to Sea Country, and sure knowledge and perspective with the students.
We are looking forward to our May session hosted @national_marine_science_centre@southerncrossuni .
Bowmouth guitarfish
This ray is decreasing in population numbers and listed on the @iucnred_list as critically endangered.
Found across tropical coastal waters of the info-west Pacific. They are threatened largely by overfishing where both meat and fins fetch high prices on international markets.
Have you ever seen a bowmouth guitarfish?
Shark joke time!
✨which country do sharks come from? Finland
✨Why do sharks live in salt water? Cause pepper water would make them sneeze!
Share your shark jokes!
Species of the deep!
Today we’re exploring the fascinating and slightly terrifying viper dogfish. Living over 300 metres beneath the ocean surface, this small black shark (barely reaching 50cm) packs one of the most unique faces in the sea. Those glass-like, fang-lined jaws shoot forward to impale prey whole.
First discovered off Japan in 1986, it has rarely been seen or studied since — spotted only a handful of times across Japan, Taiwan, and Hawaii. The life of the viper dogfish remains a mystery.
Small shark. Big nightmare energy. 🖤
#speciesofthedeep #sharkfacts
Have you seen a basking shark?
They are a bucket list shark for me. Basking sharks are the second largest fish in the ocean, able to breach their entire body out of the water and relying on plankton to fuel themselves!
More facts on this big fish:
✨Breach at 5m/s comparable to that of a white shark (Johnston et al., 2018)
✨Have traits that are similar to those of regional endotherms - suggesting the ability to maintain their body temperature
(Dolton et al., 2023)
✨Form groups of ~6-30 individuals of both sexes and swim slowly in rotating circles. This could be a courtship behaviour
(Sims et al., 2023)
Do you have any basking sharks Breach facts to add?
Video credit : Vanessa Boehm
Photo credit: Mary Bates
#factoftheweek
Learn from Professor @charliehuveneers about animal-borne cameras and why we deploy them on sharks!
These tools are pretty cool! They give us incredible insight into the movement and behaviour of these animals! Helping us to build an understanding of how a white shark interacts with its environment.
They stay on for 5 days before the whole unit detaches leaving nothing behind on the shark. Stay tuned to learn more about how white sharks spend their time!
