More Than Jaws

Ever since the movie Jaws came out, it has been hard to shake the perception from people’s minds that sharks aren’t man eating monsters.

Post-doc fellow Charles Bangley of The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) Fish and Invertebrate Ecology Lab is looking to change that. Bangley and colleagues have been conducting research and plan to tag four underrepresented sharks in the Chesapeake Bay. Unknown to most, the Atlantic Coast is a hot spot for shark biodiversity.

“Sharks are a lot like wolves in Yellowstone National Park or lions in the Serengeti. They can be indicators of healthy ecosystems because they’re likely to be found in places that support large numbers of prey species,” said Matt Ogburn, the lab’s principal investigator.

If you want to learn more, check out the article from SERC’s blog Shorelines, here.