Taylor Erdman
In Motion Staff Writer
Students of DSC are constantly up to something with their busy schedules, but more recently the Marine Science program, had its hands full with shark tagging.
Josh Munsey, local shark enthusiast and shark tagger, spoke with Dr. Debra Woodall’s Oceanography class early on a February morning. With help of the Oceanography professor and a multitude of her students, Munsey plans to head out to the beaches on April 6 in hopes of successfully catching, tagging and recording data safely of any shark they catch.
With data like weight, girth, gender and the total length of the shark being recorded by Munsey and his team, one highly motivated DSC student, Katelyn DiGirolomo, plans to then collect a swab of the bacteria from the sharks mouths. A four-foot pole with a swab at the end of it allows her to obtain samples, all the while keeping out of the sharks’ biting range. Data will then be used to understand better the bacteria growing between the teeth and with further research, to prevent against infections if a shark bites a human.
With a 40 to 50 pound test line and a 100 to 150 lead line, Josh Munsey and his father Dennis plan to safely and successfully bring a shark up to the beach so they can place a tag harmlessly on its dorsal fin to track where the shark travels in the ocean.
To do the tagging safely for the students and the creatures, the Munseys informed the class that the shark could only be out of the water for two or three minutes before the effects take a toll on the animal. For larger sharks, they can be damaged after 10 to 15 minutes.
“When you catch a shark you just insulted it. It’s gonna go and sulk,” noted Rachael Kyle, a student of Dr. Woodall’s.
With the uncertainty of the size of the animal hanging in the air, since juveniles can be as big as 12.5 feet long, the safety of the shark, and everyone around, is of the utmost importance. Great care is taken to ensure the comfort of the animal.
As the shark is pulled up onto the beach, a wet towel is placed over the eyes of the creature to calm it down, while multiple students keep it hydrated by pouring a bucket of salt water over its skin. Another method being bounced around would be pumping sea water through a hose and into its mouth to allow the water to pass over the sharks gills.
For general purposes, most fishermen tend to use a “J” hook with barbs at the end. But for such a big creature they intend to catch, the J hook would cause more harm than good. If it lodged inside the shark and the hook happened to break, it could wind up in the animal’s stomach. To fix this, Munsey will use a C hook to allow for easy removal. If it happens that they have to leave it in the shark’s mouth to reduce damage, then the C hook corrodes and falls out within three weeks.
A longtime lover of sharks, Josh Munsey hopes to bring awareness of these powerful creatures.
“So many sharks die in a year, and it’s not really for a good cause,” said Munsey. “Sharks are not really all that bad like people think, we kill more of them, then they do us.”
Sharks are most often hunted for their fins since in some cultures it is considered a delicacy. Once the hunters have the fins, the shark is then tossed into the water and drowns because it can’t move. Because of this process called “finning,” an estimated 100 million sharks are killed per year.