OCEAN ACTION: University of Miami Shark Research

MISSION: Using science, technology, education and conservation to engage high school students, and to strengthen awareness about marine ecology and conservation.

HQ: Miami

YEAR STARTED: 2010

CONTACT: UMSharkResearch@gmail.com

PROJECT: Field research that encourages students to adopt conservation-focused attitudes

1. TAG YOU'RE IT
Shark tagging brings participants into the field where they work with scientists off South Florida collecting data. For a donation of $300, you can join a University of Miami shark expedition. “If we’re lucky enough to catch a shark, things get exciting quickly,” says SRC’s lab manager Stephen Cain. “Participants will be asked to help us with a variety of field sampling techniques — nictitating membrane, fin clip, shark tag, standardized measurements — before releasing the shark.”

2. RESCUE A REEF
SRC is part of the R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program, which hosts research trips out of Key Biscayne, Florida, to work on coral-reef restoration. “Each Rescue A Reef expedition is designed to allow citizen scientists to take part in all aspects of a reef-restoration process,” says Dalton Hesley, a UM research assistant. You’ll help scientists maintain nurseries, fragment corals, and outplant fragments of staghorn coral onto nearby wild reefs, so an open-water certification is required.

3. GET TO BUSINESS
Shark research is neither easy nor cheap. For $2,500, you and your co-workers can adopt a shark, the cost of which covers the price of one new satellite tag. You are given the opportunity to name the tagged shark and follow its movements online using the SRC’s interactive Google map. Want to take it a step further? SRC also offers corporate expeditions — such as a five-day trip to the Berry Islands — so you and your office mates can get some amazing stories for the watercooler.

Learn more about tagging sharks: Great whites