This blog: purpose and objectives

This blog was maintained during my cooperation with Dr. S. Gruber (BBFS) during the Lemon Shark project in 2007.

It was created in order to provide news in an almost up to date manner, to keep informed those who backed me up on this endeavour and to all who gladly cooperated in several ways to make this quest for answers possible.

You will find a lot of spelling errors on this blog, duplicate images, and so on.

Bear in mind that almost all posts here where written after long hours of work (sometimes 14, 16h) resulting several times on falling asleep over the keyboard while adding a few lines more.

Therefore it will remain as is, with no corrections or changes since it´s basically a set of memories that were gathered here.

Scientific explanations and content will probably be available on the web in a near future but not on this particular blog itself.

Aknowledgments

I would like to thank all who made this experience possible and also, to all of those who kept in touch sending words of incentive and who patiently visited this blog (with all it´s spelling errors, duplicate images, and so on.)

Now it´s time for data analysis

Back in Portugal it´s time to go through all the data collected.

From field work, Telemetry and genetics.

Our Sharks: Why did they aggregate? Where did they came from? Where do they go after they aggregate? Are there any sibling relationships between the Sharks found in Florida waters when compared with others collected in other geographically spread out areas? These are some of the question marks that need to be solved.

A Work in progress.

Lab Work

After a few months doing field work, it was time to get back into a lab.

A great thanks to Kevin and Joey for their knowledge sharing and good working environment.

And Cheers to all the staff at the FM, specially to those who shared the same facilities and help out in several ways!

Broken down Laptop..

Needless to say that having your computer breaking down if foreing lands, is something that can really nag you a lot.. reason why this blog hasn´t been updated for a while.
But it wasn´t just the hard-drive; graphic card, usb ports..non-working..duh!

Besides the risk of having lost all the data, since the hard-drive wasn´t working (fortunatly backups exist for a reason, although their not so easy to make when your cd-writter was already screwed up...) there is also the problem of loosing less expensive ways to comunicate. Either by email or skype.

The Staff at the FM and a Portuguese Surprise

Kevin
Joey

Sara & Kev: Not part of the "Shark Team", but the first Portuguese that i found on US grounds; It was fun and at the same time strange when we both started to talk again in our Lusitanian Language*:) (*what´s this?: click here:)

Thank you for the Welcome Dinner Party with our fellow countrymen.
It was amazingly nice hear Portuguese words again, after we cleared off the English interference that was getting in the middle of our speech:)

From the Warm Weather into the Freezing Cold!

Chicago: A new city,a new reality.
A bit cold for someone who just came out of Miami who happened to be born and raised in the Portuguese fine weather.
It takes a while to get used to the cold and mostly, to the freezing wind of Lake Michigan!:)

Destination: Field Museum

Objective: Run tissue samples from our Sharks, determine sibship relationships and ID individuals.

Shark tissue Samples: off to Chicago

Besides all the adult Sharks that we got on the 2007 season, other samples from Bimini kept me company on my way to Chicago.

Last Days in Miami

Marie Gruber, no words would thank you enough. no wonder your the Lab "Mother":)
Last night out; Patrick Rice joined us, or we joined him and his friends?!..:)

Wrappin´ it up & Ready to Leave

Wrappin´ it up; getting ready to move..
gear cleaned, ready and packed.
A great Thanks to Bill Parks and Cheryl Carroll for their patience and contribution!

Fairwell FL: Dinner Party with all of those who Contributed and helped during this Project

First of all a special Thanks to the Newman Brother´s who lead us to the right spots with all their knowledge and hands-on-experience!
Unfortunatly at this time i don´t posses any photo´s that can be posted on this blog.

Tony Grogan (AKA SpearMax): Captain of the Enterprise and Webmaster of Spearboard.com!
A valuable help and support during the hardest, but rewarding phase of the Project.

Steve and Rhonda: thanks for their hospitality and cooperation during the Shark Project! The Beslers: A great contribution for this year Project in terms of logistics, patience and good companionship. Just Divers: Stabin´Boy, David me and Walt. No words necessary. Stabbin Boy: Your whisky and Cigars where a great treat and an ice-breaker on one special occasion:) His first man-to-Shark experience while the Shark Project was ongoing and the air-supply had run short for those directly involved. Thanks for the dock support, the wonderful barbecue and cooking tips!
Keep up the good spearfishing skills,Stabbin!

Some Close-Ups of the Sharks

Although in the videos from previous posts the Sharks seem quite easy to handle, bear in mind that on that point they were previously controlled and secured; this image can give a nice idea of how it all starts.

It has been a dream come true to work at the Sharklab over the past year. During that time, there have been some incredible and memorable encounters both between the sharks in the area and the people who pass through the lab. Bimini attracts both from around the world and to share each great time would take longer than this blog would allow. However, for the past three weeks that I've been away from Bimini, it turns out this steady pattern of amazement continues in the waters off Jupiter Florida. Nothing but amazement and curiosity would keep someone to carry on with successions of 16-22 hour work days but this team pushed through and as a result learned new trades, found more questions, and had a damn good time. There is no single person that can take credit for making this work however. Many many thanks go out to the battalion of personnel who contributed their boats, talents, and time. Not to mention put their asses on some serious lines. Thank-you!

By now you know how successful it was. Its exciting to think that right now, there are big bad lemons cruising around, interacting, milling, and logging that precious data into the receivers like deposits into a bank of knowledge. It is impossible to describe working with these lemons. Previously I've worked with only one lemon of this size (250cm+) in Bimini. The little guys are prevalent and constitute the vast majority of what we work with. I've always enjoyed the tenacity and pugnaciousness of the little lemons but now, I have a better respect for them when seeing what they are capable of growing up into. The adults are serious animals. Although they are not the most striking of sharks, they, like the bulls who share this area, have a commanding presence when in their element. When looking in their eye you can see there is an ancient intelligence at work.

CP

Getting bait for Shark Fishing

When Balls made a difference...:)

Christian P, handling the Hammerhead´s Dorsal fin, with pride!
Walt Stearns Filming the Shark






Waiting...

Have we got another one?

Working a Shark

Willie Howard coverage on our work: "PalmBeachPost.com"

quotation:

Reproduction patterns key to lemon's survival

By Willie Howard

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Samuel "Doc" Gruber and fellow shark researchers have been fishing the ocean off Palm Beach County again this winter, catching and tagging adult lemon sharks in hopes of solving some of the mysteries of shark reproduction.

A marine biologist with the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Gruber has studied lemon sharks since he was a graduate student in 1960. But it was only five years ago that diver Walt Stearns sent him photos of adult lemon sharks gathering during the winter in the waters off Jupiter.

Lemon shark research
The shark doctor: Samuel 'Doc' Gruber of the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science has been studying lemon sharks since 1960. In recent years, Gruber has been doing research on lemon sharks in the waters around Bimini, off Brazil, in the Marquesas Keys (west of Key West) and in the waters off Palm Beach County.
Palm Beach County sharks: Divers noticed groups of adult lemon sharks off Jupiter in the winter of 2002 and reported them to Gruber, who has been coming to South Florida to observe and tag them every winter since.
More information: For more about shark researcher Samuel Gruber and his Bimini Biological Field Station, go online to www.miami.edu/sharklab.

Original link here:

More soon! Photos & Videos as well!

Scientists hit mother load of Lemon Sharks

Images: Courtesy of Tony Grogan

One of the biggest Lemons we got!


Inserting the Transmitters

Capt. Mike and the "Dykoke"

Transmitter

Steve, Christian, Artur and Doc Gruber

Tony G, "Enterprise"

Walt Stearns...do you want to get closer than that??...
An Excellent diver, photographer and most of all a BZ man, to go on these waters up and personal with the Sharks

De hooking the Shark

Tissue sample for DNA

Tagging

Getting the Shark ready and secure for us to work.

Paddle: a nice tool to help controlling the Shark..or at least something for them to bite on, instead of us:)
Although sometimes some Sharks are quite smart, and they just take a little bit of the paddle, therefore trying to be able to bite something else besides the paddle. After all...all those humans handling it, tie it, and holding him close by a boat..So whenever these guys get a chance, they will try to get you!:)
And for those who don´t know...Lemons can bite their own tails, so their pretty fast twisting their snout backwards.

There´s a post on Spearboard, from Tony Grogan (SpearMax) with his own perspective of all this

Take a look at it on:

The Spearboard:
http://www.spearboard.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41884

It´s interesting to have others points of view and descritpion on the work we have all done.

Once again, a Great Thanks to Tony Grogan and Mike Newman for making this possible.