{"id":57567,"date":"2015-09-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-students-summer-research-has-him-planning-career-studying-sharks\/"},"modified":"2015-09-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T00:00:00","slug":"uri-students-summer-research-has-him-planning-career-studying-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/09\/uri-students-summer-research-has-him-planning-career-studying-sharks\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 student\u2019s summer research has him planning career studying sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tAmherst, Mass., native to merge marine biology, engineering<\/p>\n


\n\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 September 15, 2015 \u2013 Johann Becker\u2019s first day of shark fishing last month was a challenge. The seas were rough and most of the people aboard were seasick \u2013 Becker included \u2013 which made it difficult to impress the National Geographic and NBC10 film crews that joined the expedition.<\/p>\n


\n\tAnd when the 溏心vlog免费B站 junior finally caught his first shark, it took a while to learn the technique for reeling it in.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cOnce I finally got it close to the boat, it would run and take all the line out again,\u201d said the Amherst, Mass., resident. \u201cIt was a 20-minute fight, and I was exhausted when it was over.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tIt was also a valuable learning experience. The fishing trip, led by 溏心vlog免费B站 shark expert Brad Wetherbee, was part of Becker\u2019s summer research on shark behavior. Unfortunately, they caught mostly blue sharks and none of their target species, mako sharks, which they had hoped to tag to track their travels.<\/p>\n


\n\tWetherbee had plenty of other mako shark data for Becker to work with though. The goal of Becker\u2019s summer research was to analyze the routes taken by previously tagged sharks to learn about their feeding and migratory behavior.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWhen you look at the data, you see that sometimes they go straight for a thousand miles without stopping, and then they stop and zigzag around one spot for a month or two before going straight again,\u201d said Becker, a marine biology and ocean engineering major. \u201cThey\u2019re transiting from one place to another and then staying in one area to feed.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tHe spent a great deal of time analyzing data and comparing each shark\u2019s movement patterns to chlorophyll concentrations, ocean depth and other oceanographic parameters to determine \u201cwhy they go where they go and why they decide to stay where they stay.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tBecker had hoped to go shark fishing regularly \u2013 including trips in New Jersey and Connecticut \u2013 but the weather seldom cooperated and boat malfunctions canceled additional trips. Yet the two days he made it out on the water resulted in 10 and 8 shark captures, respectively, though no makos.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI still got a lot of good experience working with the data, and that\u2019s something I\u2019ll definitely use again,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n


\n\tAnd he enjoyed learning about the satellite tracking devices used to monitor shark movement patterns. Wetherbee told him that none of the various devices he uses can collect all of the data he seeks, which motivated Becker to consider a career that uses his engineering expertise to create improved tracking devices for use in biological studies.<\/p>\n


\n\tBecker\u2019s research was part of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellows Program, a unique initiative designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems. Now in its 20th year, it is based at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of the Environment and Life Sciences. Students are paired with a mentor and research staff to help them gain skills relevant to their academic major and future occupations.<\/p>\n


\n\tBecker said that sharks have always been one of his three favorite marine creatures \u2013 along with octopus and sea turtles \u2013 but his summer of research moved sharks up to the top spot. With just a few semesters left before graduation, he is carefully considering how sharks will play a role in his future career.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI\u2019m strongly considering graduate school, but I also want to just get out there and do some field work,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope to get a chance to travel where the sharks are and continue studying them.\u201d\n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amherst, Mass., native to merge marine biology, engineering KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 September 15, 2015 \u2013 Johann Becker\u2019s first day of shark fishing last month was a challenge. The seas were rough and most of the people aboard were seasick \u2013 Becker included \u2013 which made it difficult to impress the National Geographic and NBC10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}