St. Maarten News —The St. Maarten Nature Foundation initiated their shark tagging program as part of the DCNA Save Our Sharks project funded by the Dutch National Postcode Lottery. According to the Nature Foundation in a press release, this research is aimed to better understand the life characteristics of sharks in St Maarten waters including population structure, abundance and migration.
Jillian Morris and Duncan Brake from Sharks4kids assisted the Nature Foundation with building gear, catching, handling and tagging the sharks. The team successfully caught, tagged and released eight sharks in St Maarten waters in the last few weeks.
The Nature Foundation tagged four Caribbean Reefs sharks (Carcharhinus perezii) and four tiger sharks (Galeocerdo Cuvier), with lengths varying from four to seven feet long. All sharks were measured, equipped with an identification tag and a DNA sample was taken without removing the shark from the water. All sharks were released in good health and hopefully will be identified on other locations in the near future.
Source: Today SXM Nature Foundation starts tagging endangered shark species on St. Maarten
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