Date: June 3, 2016
Location: off the Coast of Ft. Lauderdale
Blog Post By: Bryce Jurkouich
Touching Sharks for Science
Today
the class took another turn for the better and went shark tagging, but it wasn’t
only for our enjoyment! The class helped
assist the graduate research project of Rachael Karns a local grad student. Our part in helping was to swab the fins,
teeth, gills, and cloaca of the sharks as they came in. Afterwards I took it upon myself to ask
Rachael about her research and the purpose of it.
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| A brave soul swabs the mouth of a sand shark |
The first
question I bombarded her with was concerning the purpose and importance of her research. She explained to me about that she was going
to use the swabs to get a sample of the bacterial microclimate at each location. Once back to the lab they would use a DNA sequencer
to uncover the different species of microorganism that exist in those parts of
the shark body. Half of the research is comparing
how the different bacterial species relate to each other, relate to the different
body parts, or the species of shark.
This would provide insight on how the interactions between the micro and
macro would in the ocean. It also
provides the researchers insight on the sharks overall health. One of the main goal of the research however
is to look at the bacteria in the mouths of shark, as infection is commonly
seen in shark attack victims. The
current system of administering all-purpose antibiotics isn’t as effective if
more precise antibiotics were used for treatment. However the more precise antibiotics can’t be
used until the doctors know more about the micro climate of the different shark’s
mouths, which this research will discover.
My second
question for Rachael was what motivated her to conduct this type of research. She replied that growing up she had always
loved sharks, but hated genetics. As she
progressed her way thought higher education she increasingly fell in love with
genetics finally deciding to incorporate it and her first love of sharks into something
worthwhile. She said that she was
encouraged by her genetics professor Jose Lopez who she worked with on the project
along with Dr. Shivji whose Lab they use for analysis.
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| A shark in the wild |
Today was a really cool experience and Rachel was very insightful to talk to as well as the other crew. I think the research is going to provide great insight on how the sharks behave around Southern Florida - I'm actually surprised no one has started this in this area before.
ReplyDeleteRachel was not only super sweet, but incredibly smart! When I asked her a few questions earlier in the day, she mentioned that a project like this was never done in cartilagenous fishes, but a few have been done with bony fishes. She was hoping her results may ignite projects elsewhere. Great job everyone!
ReplyDeletePersonally being one of the people to be able to swab the teeth of the Sharks was awesome! I also asked her about the cultures and what would become of them. She was a sweet girl who explained her passion for marine science. This experience opened my eyes to a whole new category of science and what kind of research could be done!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog and I am going to check out your links about sharks!
I had asked Rachel about how she got started on this project and she relayed her experience. She said the best method to getting into a research project was to be as persistent as possible. Contact professors of all areas, even those you might not be readily interested in. There is always a way to tie things together once you meet the right people. As someone who will be applying to grad school in the near future I found her advice helpful- I'll be sending out some emails as soon as we get home!
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