KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 29, 2019 — When the National Marine Fisheries Service began encouraging fishermen to target sharks as an \u201cunderutilized resource\u201d in the 1980s, little was known about the animals\u2019 biology and ecology. But when shark populations soon plummeted, it spawned an abundance of research and monitoring. And Brad Wetherbee, a graduate student in Florida at the time who now lives in Lincoln, R.I., was caught up in the middle of it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one had talked about shark management or shark conservation until they realized that sharks were being overfished and declining around the world,\u201d said Wetherbee, a professor at the 溏心vlog免费B站 who has studied sharks in Hawaii, the Caribbean and along the East Coast. \u201cTheir life history characteristics are such that they don\u2019t sustain heavy harvest \u2013 they grow slowly, mature late, and don\u2019t give birth to many young.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, he has focused his research on what he calls \u201cmovement ecology\u201d \u2013 the study of shark migration patterns as they apply to marine conservation. \u201cIn order to manage a population, you have to know where that population is,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd sometimes that raises the question about whose waters are they in and what country or state is responsible for managing them. It also demonstrates the interactions between sharks and a wide variety of fisheries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fishing is the biggest threat facing sharks, and the driving force for fishermen is the demand in China for shark fin soup, a delicacy that is responsible for the killing of as many as 70 million sharks each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSharks are the top predators in their ecosystems, and the ecosystem changes dramatically when you remove top predators \u2013 the communities become more vulnerable to disturbance, pollution, invasive species and other factors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During the course of his research, Wetherbee \u2013 who has become the local media\u2019s go-to expert for shark news \u2013 has tracked the movement patterns of hundreds of mako, tiger and oceanic whitetip sharks to learn their migratory routes and where they feed. His data was recently factored into a new study, published in the prestigious journal Nature<\/em>, comparing the hotspots of global shark activity to the hotspots of global fishing activity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe areas overlap quite a bit,\u201d he said. \u201cThe areas the sharks concentrate their activity in are also the areas where the fishermen concentrate their activity, and the fishing is having a major effect on their populations. The mako shark is one species that\u2019s especially in trouble due to fishing.\u201d<\/p>\n Wetherbee\u2019s shark studies also led to the discovery of a new species of deep-sea shark, Laila\u2019s lanternshark, which he named after his daughter.<\/p>\n But the 溏心vlog免费B站 scientist is perhaps most proud of his role in getting young people interested in sharks and marine science. More than 150 溏心vlog免费B站 undergraduate students have contributed to his research, and dozens of high school students have participated in his Summer Shark Camp. He wrapped up the second camp two weeks ago with students from The Met School, Paul Cuffee High School, and Central High School in Providence, as well as from Central Falls High School.<\/p>\n \u201cSharks generate a lot of attention,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re a way to get students interested in marine science, get them out on boats, get them fishing, and give them an experience they wouldn\u2019t have otherwise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 29, 2019 — When the National Marine Fisheries Service began encouraging fishermen to target sharks as an \u201cunderutilized resource\u201d in the 1980s, little was known about the animals\u2019 biology and ecology. But when shark populations soon plummeted, it spawned an abundance of research and monitoring. And Brad Wetherbee, a graduate student […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-74964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74964","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=74964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}