Bimini, Bahamas
January 4-10, 2014
The year started with a shark tagging expedition in cooperation with the Field Research Station in Bimini, Bahamas. The purpose of this expedition was to place acoustic tags on great hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna mokarran) as well as anchor receivers on the South Bimini Island coastline.
As with all expedition organized by The Watermen Project, participants joined in to be the front-row witnesses of science in action. Good thing this year was a land-based expedition and not a live-aboard in the middle of the ocean because as the winter storms were raging on the Eastern American coast line, many of them missed their planes and arrived to the tiny Bahamian island one or two days late.
Ahhh, January in the Bahamas. Doesn’t this evoke sun and heat, the very reason why travellers would travel South from the frigid Northern land they call home ? Guess again. The snow storm system paralyzing airports along the US Eastern very much influenced the weather in Bimini, reminding everyone how close it is to the United States mainland and that the waters they were about to dive in are situated in the North Atlantic Ocean…
William Winram and his safety diver Andrea Zuccari took the half dozen participants for daily dives, weather permitting.
Observation being the first step in scientific research, the expedition participants were able to contribute to the research by taking pictures of the animals as they are not only great souvenirs to bring home, but also serve as a catalogue which can help identify the shark’s external characteristics.
Tagging conditions were not made easy by the gusty winds and the swells but ten acoustic tags were placed according to protocol. A second expedition is scheduled in February of this year to place tags on more great hammerhead sharks.