Project Dorsal focuses its research initiatives on highly migratory threatened species, and on individuals that are indicators of localized ecosystem health. Our initiatives implement non-traditional, innovative methodologies that are as minimally invasive as possible in order to ultimately affect policy and ensure marine ecosystem health.

Involving the public and cooperating with local stakeholders as a means of data collection is a core value and a necessity in order to maximize our impact.

Pelagic Sharks

Over three-quarters of open ocean shark species have a heightened risk of extinction. Because of the natural absence of food in the open ocean, pelagic sharks must be curious by nature. While this behavior makes these species a favorite of tourism operations, it renders these individuals especially vulnerable to commercial fishing bycatch. With such high mortality rates and slow population growth, pelagic shark populations have drastically declined.

Pelagic sharks are known to make very long-distance migrations and are difficult to locate on a consistent, regular basis. Because of this, information on their movements, physiology, and their interactions with fishing efforts and tourism operations remain largely unknown.

Our approach is to cooperate with a local eco-tourism operation, Shark Tours Florida in order to locate, and sample two enigmatic pelagic shark species: the silky shark and the dusky shark. This operation has found a location and time where these two species can be regularly encountered for a short period every year. We plan on utilizing acoustic telemetry technology and acoustic tags to examine the behavior and movements of these species in relation to eco-tourism operations and recreational fishing activity. We also plan on collecting blood from these species in-situ (free-swimming) in order to understand the baseline level of stress of these two species. We can then correlate these baseline levels to sharks that have been incidentally captured in recreational fisheries to measure increased stress levels.

We encourage the public to join us on every planned research expedition, as they will play a vital, active role in gathering scientific data while researchers are conducting more directed sampling methodologies. These roles will include:

• Gathering length information of individuals via laser-camera devices ("photogrammetry").

• Collecting data on sex and size-class aggregation.

• Taking photos of identifying features of individuals for photo-ID software and repository.

Juveniles and Inshore Ecology*

Inshore protected areas are widely considered to be essential habitats for sharks and other important gamefish species. Here, they can grow and remain relatively protected until large enough to move to deeper, more open waters. Recent declines in populations of gamefish and coastal shark species have generated the need to study the conservation ecology of these fish. It is critical to examine the ecology of inshore, and coastal waters given the drastic rise in coastal habitat modification. Coastal metropolitan areas are at the forefront of human-induced ecological threats, with over 75% of the world's population expected to be living in coastal regions by the year 2025.

Our approach is to identify shark and gamefish nursery areas in South Florida, as well as understand the physiology and ecosystem ecology of these essential habitats through a variety of innovative research strategies, and with the cooperation of local stakeholders (e.g. fishing guides). Our aim is to understand how these habitats are being affected by urbanization and ultimately affect policy to protect these vital regions and sequentially, conserve these ecological and economically important species.

While this initiative is still being planned, our tentative main research themes are:

• Identification of nursery critical habitat zones for coastal sharks and gamefish

• Utilizing fish species as indicators of local ecosystem health via seine nets

• Evaluating baseline stress levels of juvenile, free-swimming shark species in relation to angled sharks.

• Studying the physiology and health of juvenile sharks and gamefish in response to anthropogenic disturbances (e.g. algal blooms, stormwater runoff, etc.).

We encourage public involvement and cooperation as much as possible with this initiative and local stakeholder cooperation is essential in order to accomplish our research mission. If you would like to assist and share observational data or help participate in seine netting, please click the button below.

*Future planned initiative