NSU Students Get Hands-On Shark-Tagging Experience
-
- Ally Sheehan, graduate student in the marine science program, hauls the drumline. (Courtesy of the Field School)
-
- Dr. Catherine MacDonald, director of Field School, hold a hammerhead shark’s mouth while other scientist collect data. (Photo by Indaya Byer)
-
- NSU grad student Ashley Long works with a sandbar shark. (Courtesy of Field School)
Nova Southeastern University students tagged 10 sharks through a graduate-level course that partners with a non-profit, the Field School. David Shiffman, NSU adjunct professor led the class to South Beach, in waters more than 100 feet deep, showing them the important roles of shark scientists.
The Field School helped with safely holding the sharks. Students touched the sharks to collect data from them, tagging the new sharks. When away from the sharks, the students sorted bait, prepared the drum line, which is a technique used to reel in the sharks and handled the boat’s maintenance.
Weeks of reading textbook pages, listening to lectures, and studying led up to hands-on experience with the top of the food chain. With three days on the boat, students learned exactly what takes to be a shark scientist. Unlike your regular classroom, this one took sail with plenty of lessons on deck.
Madeline Hammond, the graduate assistant for Dean Holly Lynn Baumgartner for the NSU’s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, participated in the outing.
“This three-day trip was the field portion of a class that was offered as an elective for the master’s programs in the HCAS’s Department of Marine & Environmental Sciences,” she said. “It was the first time this class was offered, as this was Dr. David Shiffman’s first semester as an adjunct faculty.”
Shiffman is a well-known conservation biologist and many of the students were excited for the opportunity to take a class with him and gain hands-on experience on a research vessel; the first section filled up quickly, so the department and Shiffman opened a second section to allow more students to take the course, Hammond said.
Shiffman, a University of Miami alum, knew the founders and many of the crew of the Field School.
“This, along with the opportunity to experience spending overnights on a research vessel and the ability to invite guest scientists on board to speak with students, led Shiffman and the program office to host the field-portion of our class on the Field School boat in Key Biscayne,” Hammond said.
“As a student, I really liked this opportunity because it allowed me to learn whether or not I would enjoy the day-to-day life of being a field scientist, and it also gave me the opportunity to make connections with different scientists pursuing various environmental career paths that I otherwise may not have met,” she said. “As the first group of students to take this class, we offered Dr. Shiffman and the program office a ton of feedback … about the course so that they can decide whether to offer this class again in the future and if so, how they can adjust it to make it an even better experience for students in the future.”
See the video of their experiential journey!
Producer: Paulina Riojas
Videographer: Ashley Lopez and Paulina Riojas
Posted 06/18/23