Project summary

Hey guys,

I am safe back in Canada with cozy minus 10-30 degrees Celsius, all the data is entered so now it is time for a review on this years achievements. Thanks to all of you for your support the project was a full success and we were able to tag 14 Atlantic weasel sharks (those of you who can give a shark a name will be contacted in a separate email too). This Video on Vimeo from our team member and veterinarian Dr. Chris Harvey-Clark gives you some impressions on our Work in Santa Luzia and abut the team :-)

Now we have to wait one year to download the first data from the receivers. We expect to get data for the next 1378 days though. As a reminder, the tagged sharks have to pass by our receiver lines withing 800 meters in order to get detected. This means that very likely not all tagged sharks will be recorded again. In addition to some maybe moving to another area without any receivers installed, some of them are unfortunately very likely to be fished and killed. However, we hope that we will get already quite some insights with our 14 tagged sharks to answer the question if this area is an important habitat for this species. I will keep you updated of course, but this kind of research needs some time and the final answer can only be given in about 3-4 years. 

Beside the weasel sharks, we were also able to tag another 9 nurse sharks in Maio and we found the first new born nurse shark in this area :-). 

 

For nurse sharks we use different (bigger) tags which of course is only be possible due to their larger size. Bigger tags have larger batteries and we expect to get data here for about 6-10 years. Our findings so far however suggest that the north of Maio (Praia Real) is an important area and potential nursery ground for this species. We are working together with the government and local NGO's to make this spot an official marine reserve where shark fishing is prohibited. Like in Santa Luzia, the data will be downloaded in one year and I will keep you updated on this species too!

For now I would like to thank you all so much again! Whatever our findings will be, they were made possible by your donations and hopefully will have direct implications on the protection of these amazing and threatened species.

To all of you a sharky Christams and happy holidays!