As we shark dive around the world we rarely have an opportunity to visit a shark research facility. Our two weeks on Bimini Island allowed us to photograph great hammerhead sharks, bull sharks, nurse sharks, blacknose sharks, Caribbean reef sharks, southern stingrays, and Atlantic spotted dolphins. What a fantastic diversity of big animals around a very small island. We got to see baby lemon sharks and nurse sharks at the Bimini Shark Lab.
The research they do here is invaluable. Sharks are under threat worldwide and research is needed to better understand them and protect their nursing sites. One thing that their research has revealed is that the female lemon shark returns to the same mangrove sites that they were born at to give birth to their pups. Knowing this allows researchers to influence governments to protect these critical environments.
We found it fascinating to go to their holding pen to see the young shark pups that they were doing research on. We photograph the adults in the oceans but never see pups. Young sharks reside in the mangroves skirting the islands for protection in their early years but at some point venture away from these safe zones. The shark pup with the barbels is a nurse shark and the other is a lemon shark. So neat to see such young, small sharks.
OUT THE DOOR TO EXPLORE 