Palmyra Atoll Reef Sharks
Channel: Ocean 180 Video Challenge
Date: 2018-04-08

In this study, we set out to determine how well ocean parks protect sharks. We undertook this research due to shark finning and overfishing. We attached small GPS trackers to the dorsal fins of a shark species called a Grey Reef Shark to follow their movements. These sharks were tagged within a large US-owned protected area in the Pacific that is twice the size of Massachusetts. Previously most marine biologists believed that, as their name suggests, Grey Reef Sharks hung around coral reefs. We were surprised to find that some of the Grey Reef Sharks we tagged travelled a long distance from coral reefs and far out into the open ocean. About one third of our tagged sharks actually travelled outside of the boundaries of the protected area where they could be caught and finned. We shared this discovery with ocean scientists in the US government and they used this data as part of the justification for expanding marine protected areas in the Pacific to better protect at-risk species like sharks.