Unknown shark ID

Hi guys! It turns out we weren't catching black tip reef sharks, like we thought. Instead, we found out they were another small shark species, the spottail shark. They are in the same family as both black tip sharks and tiger sharks. What can you find out about the family, Carcharhinidae? What does it mean to be in the same "family" in science? Can you tell your teacher what Kingdom, Phylum, Class, and Order these sharks are part of? What kind of traits do animals in the family Carcharhinidae have in common?

Something else interesting about the unknown shark species--it turns out that our friends at Ocean Park, a small aquarium in Shark Bay, were catching black tip sharks in the Western Gulf, while we were catching spottail sharks in the Eastern Gulf. Why might the two gulfs of Shark Bay have different species of sharks living in them?

Photos from the field

Here's a picture of one of our volunteer assistants, Sean, holding a 307 cm female tiger shark. See how her stripes don't extend around her belly?
This is what we think is a black tipped reef shark. Note how pointy her teeth are, tiger shark's teeth are more triangular and serrated, so that they can saw through things like turtle shell and dugong bone. Do you think this shark could cut through a turtle shell with her teeth? What other differences between her and a tiger shark can you identify? Look up photos of tiger sharks on the internet and tell your teacher!
These are two loggerhead sea turtles. They are only about 15 months old and will be released into the wild soon. They currently live at Ocean Park Sea Aquarium here in Shark Bay, where they were taken to rehabilitate.
This is my other volunteer, Greg, with a smaller tiger shark. Can you estimate how much smaller she is than the first one? Do you see the orange tag in her dorsal fin? Why might we put a tag in the sharks we catch?
If you have answers to my questions or some questions of your own, send us an email or ask your teacher to.

Back in the bay

Hi everyone! I'm back in Shark Bay after a 6 month hiatus and am so glad to be here. It is hot and there are tons of animals. Yesterday we saw 9 dugongs, 6 sea snakes, and a baby green turtle. We also have some resident stone fish in our experiments in the seagrass banks. If you don't know what a stone fish is, I'll try and find a photos, but they are very ugly and very dangerous fish. They have venom in their spines that hurts so much people often die from the pain. Yikes!

I want to thank Curtin University, STAWA and DEC EcoEducation for the gorgeous PD event last month. Thank you also to all the teachers who attended. We got great feedback and it was so nice to meet all of you. Our third Australian teacher, Kym Phillips from Denmark Environment Centre and DET is currently with us at Monkey Mia.

So far we've had a few fishing days and some good days for diving and prey surveys. We've caught 9 tiger sharks and 2 black tip reef sharks (we think). Three of the tiger sharks have been recaptures, so we're excited to see how much they've grown.

Photos to come soon!

Calverton Middle School

I just want to thank all the students and teachers at Calverton Elementary Middle School. I had an amazing visit with them at the end of October. Thanks to the students in Mr. West's classes, I have learned some valuable information about tiger sharks in Shark Bay.

Thanks guys! I miss you all!

Under construction...

Hi everyone! Our apologies, as this page is still under construction. However, we do have exciting news! Our first Australian teacher is currently in Shark Bay, working with Kirk Gastrich on our seagrass transplant experiments. Bec Davies is a Geography teacher at Nagle Catholic College in Geraldton, WA. Her involvement in our research was made possible by funding through the Department of Environment and Conservation (WA)'s Eco-Education Office. We'll get some feed back and photos from her soon. If you are interested in getting involved in our research, please send us an email at sberpscientist@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!