My Shark Experience!

As a meteorology major, the last thing I thought I would get to do is touch a shark, let alone feel one. It was a cool encounter, and I really enjoyed the experience. I was allowed to accompany the shark REU group out into the field where they were anesthetizing sharks and doing stomach inversions. We started our trip in the morning on a boat ride to the north sound of Bimini. Once we reached our destination, I was very elated to hear that there was one inversion left. This meant that I would get to hold the shark while the inversion was being done. The process was actually very interesting. First, a box of water large enough to place the baby lemon shark in it had to be filled with water. Second, this water had to have the anesthetizing chemical added it to make the shark fall asleep. After this was done, the shark was taken from the holding pen and placed into the box. After a few seconds of thrashing, the shark quickly fell asleep. After a brief lecture on how I was suppose to hold the shark, I placed my hand for the first time on the tiny, peaceful shark, and picked it up out of the water. This was one of the coolest experiences that I have ever been fortunate enough to take part in. The shark's skin was silky smooth when brushed from one way, but it felt like rough sand paper when stroked from the opposite way. After the stomach contents were collected, we placed the sharks stomach back in its mouth. We then woke it back up. The contents of the sharks stomach seemed odd to Dr. Damien Chapman. The shark must have eaten some ribs from a local restaurant overlooking the water. To me though, it appeared that sharks like ribs just as much as humans!