On May 25th, researchers from Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center Panama City Lab, along with CEI Shark intern Ian Bouyoucos, departed from Nassau via seaplane to Andros. They spent the next three days at the Flamingo Cay Rod and Gun Club exploring the west side of Andros. The focus of this leg of the expedition is to 1) take genetic samples from lemon and bonnethead sharks, and 2) to find the critically endangered smalltooth sawfish (a cartilaginous fish, closely related to stingrays).
Smalltooth sawfish populations have declined by over 90% in no small part due to their susceptibility to accidental capture in gill nets. Andros is one of the few places outside of the U.S. where smalltooth sawfish are found. NOAA researchers plan on outfitting these sawfish with archival satellite tags to learn more about their movement patterns.
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