Tagging is Conservation

Today on the shark tagging boat I learned a lot about how helpful it is to tag sharks. Tags are important tools of conservation as they are used to monitor and track sharks in their local habitat. Tagging the sharks helps researchers to obtain information about their life histories, population numbers, and their movements, such as migratory patterns. Tagging sharks can also help to identify  important areas that have to be protected, such as nurseries and mating grounds. Tags can also be used to track the growth rates of individuals and the survivorship of different species. 

Florida is a great place to do this shark research due to the high density and types of sharks in the water around the mainland and the Keys. Check out this website to learn more about the different types of sharks found in the Florida Keys.

There are a lot of different types of tags that could be used on sharks. Today on the boat we used a simple fin rototag. One side had the identification number of the shark and the other had the contact info for NSU’s Oceanographic Center so that if another person is to find this shark they can call it in. Other types of tags would give a lot more information and could monitor the sharks through satellite, however the rototag was chosen as it is approximately 50 cents per tag vs thousands of dollars for satellite tags.

With over 100 million sharks being killed each year by overfishing, fin collection, and accidental bycatch, it's more important than ever to try to conserve these animals. They are slow growing species that have very few offspring and therefore can not keep up with their declining numbers. Read this article to find out just how threatened these sharks are. As sharks are apex predators in the food web their decline could have huge top down effects. Therefore it is so important to continue with these tracking efforts. By understanding how the sharks move about the ocean we can figure out how to better protect these amazing species.