Recaptures, over years and sometimes decades, provide information on the shark's growth rate, range, lifespan, age at sexual maturity, and migration patterns. By charting a shark's vital statistics before attaching the tag and noting any changes if and when the shark is caught again, National Marine Fisheries Service scientists are able to gain information about the life cycles of various species found along the East Coast of the United States. The goal is to learn about the status of these populations and use that information to determine a management plan that will increase the odds for their survival. During the Aquarium field work, blood is also collected from numerous sharks for baseline studies being conducted by Medical Technician Jill Arnold in conjunction with Mote Marine Laboratory and Sea World of Florida . The studies hope to detect what normal blood values are for sharks in the wild and consequently help aquarists evaluate through blood tests the health of sharks in our care.
Sharks are important to the health of the oceans.
The decline of an apex predator upsets the balance. If sharks decline to seriously low numbers, commercial fisheries could be threatened. Already, at least one lobster fishery in Australia is threatened because lobster-eating octopus have proliferated as a result of declining populations of several species of sharks that once preyed upon the octopuses. Beachgoers along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts may have to learn to like swimming with stingrays which may to become more abundant as their principal predator, the shark, disappears. Recovery won't come quickly.