A New College professor has been conducting the first-ever survey of shark activity in Sarasota Bay
YEARS AGO, A SURFER FRIEND was about to take my 8-year-old daughter out for a paddle. “Are there sharks?” she asked.
“Put your index finger in the water and then taste it,” he said. “If it’s salty, there are sharks.”
He was right. Sharks live in every ocean on earth, and some—like the bull shark—also like fresh water. But Jayne Gardiner, assistant professor of biology at New College of Florida, is taking a more scientific approach to finding sharks than the finger-licking technique. For two years, she’s been conducting the first-ever survey of shark activity in Sarasota Bay. Her research is part of Gulfspan, a NOAA project that is studying juvenile sharks in coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico.
He was right. Sharks live in every ocean on earth, and some—like the bull shark—also like fresh water. But Jayne Gardiner, assistant professor of biology at New College of Florida, is taking a more scientific approach to finding sharks than the finger-licking technique. For two years, she’s been conducting the first-ever survey of shark activity in Sarasota Bay. Her research is part of Gulfspan, a NOAA project that is studying juvenile sharks in coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico.