Data, data, data, sounds a bit dull but when you have to free dive and bring a shark to the surface I promise you it’s not!

We caught by hand 3 Pyjama sharks and 1 Dark Shy shark considering the conditions were mental that was pretty good going, the next day on the boat with hand lines we brought in 6 sharks which we tagged, measured and a took a fin clip before releasing. The tagging reminded me of a crazy night in Greece and a bottle of tequila that resulted in a wonky eyebrow piercing…sorry Karolina.

This is a male, you can tell by the claspers, they calcify the older the shark gets. The one here is a stage 3. 

The sharks we caught free diving are currently in tanks in the lab, they will be there for the rest of the week and we are using them for lab tours with the public. They get up close with the sharks and can feed them before we release them back into the bay.

The tours are a great way of raising awareness about the vulnerability of sharks, teaching people about the endemic species in the area and dispelling any silly myths; duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun… duuunnnnnnnn!

Back out again the next day on the boat but this time we were in the estuaries, taking water samples for the government. 15 locations on each estuary and at 50cm intervals from the surface to the bottom. Very geeky, I loved it! On a research boat you get clearing to go everywhere so hanging out in a closed nature reserve with all the bird life makes the data collecting all the more fun.