Recent PhD graduate, Bryan Keller, is the lead scientist on new research finding that sharks likely use the Earth’s magnetic fields to help guide them on their migrations. Keller specifically examined a group of bonnethead sharks that spend the summer off the coast of the FSU Coastal and Marine Lab, before migrating south for the winter. Other populations of bonnetheads have been shown to undertake migrations over 1000 km roundtrip. The team’s work is published in the latest issue of Current Biology

The FSUCML GulfSPAN survey, part of a larger NOAA survey, is conducted by FSUCML graduate students and volunteers. The surveyors search for sharks at sites in the Florida Big Bend and provide vital data about shark populations and habiat.

In the journal Zoology, Dr. Taketeru Tomita, former FSUCML post doc, and Dr. Chip Cotton, FSUCML faculty, propose a new model for how live-bearing shark embryos obtain oxygen while they are gestating in the uterus.

Although approximately half of the world’s known chondrichthyans (sharks, skates, rays, and chimaeras) live in the deep sea, very little is known about these elusive animals. Thus, these species may be vulnerable as global fisheries continue to expand while research is often lacking to document the biology and life history of these fishes.

For the first time, Drs. Chip Cotton and Dean Grubbs characterize the reproductive biology of 2 species of deep-sea sharks.