Expedition leaders: Dr. Tristan Guttridge, Dr. Phil Matich, and Clark Morgan

Crew: Ella, Gina, Karen, Leila, Mel, Sarah, Stephanie. Karen, a passionate ocean conservationist, had her position on the expedition fully sponsored by Saving the Blue. Saving the Blue also hosted local marine science student Blaine (from BAMSI) for multiple, full day experiences with our team. Local Bahamian Sorantaa was, as always, part of our crew.

Day 1

Saying goodbye to Fort Lauderdale and hello to Andros, The Bahamas!

Our first afternoon was spent testing equipment and exploring a local blue hole. We took turns diving down into the crevasse and everyone had the opportunity to dive and snorkel among the beautiful surrounding corals, as well.

What a wonderful way to spend our first afternoon!

Day 2

Everyone was up early for our morning excursion to our silky shark spot. Sometimes the sharks are there, other times they’re not. We got lucky this time! Upon our arrival, we had over 40 individual silky sharks swimming around the boat. Large numbers of silky sharks are seen throughout the year, but we’re trying to understand what influences their presence or absence in this area. So far, it appears random!

A true once in a lifetime experience!

Next up, we visited a remote sandy beach where we enjoyed swimming with both Caribbean reef and lemon sharks!

Day 3

Today, we started our activities with a visit to a local school, where we gifted each of the students a copy of our book, Which Faces Belong in These Places. We had an incredible time playing games with the children while offering some educational information.

After lunch, we headed to a nearby beach for a clean-up! We hauled bag after bag of trash away from the sand and mangroves, and removed a huge amount of trash from the beach, which we then relocated to a nearby dump for disposal.

Reward time! After a sweaty beach clean, we enjoyed a little downtime with a snorkel in one of Andros’s famous blue holes!

Day 4

Our fourth day started with a fascinating lecture from Dr. Phil Matich. After, we prepared ourselves for a long day of true exploration!

The team was dropped off at a remote part of the island, where we walked around the coastline looking for possible new research locations for studying a variety of animals. We were, however, particularly interested in the critically endangered smalltooth sawfish. The drone was crucial in searching for locations we couldn’t reach by foot.

A long tiring day was done, leaving us with some new knowledge and experience under our belts!

Day 5

On our fifth day, we visited a special location that we call Isla’s Spot. We typically see anywhere from six or seven sharks to upwards of twenty here, and today was no different!

After our wonderful snorkel in the shallows with the lemon sharks, it was time to move on. We passed by some beautiful blue holes on route home.

Once we returned home, it was time for another lecture, this time from Clark Morgan.

Day 6

The team had a really early start today we were headed west! The West Side of Andros is truly wild and untouched. This area is a national park; it is extremely remote and bustling with life. We spent hours searching the creeks for critically endangered smalltooth sawfish.

Although no sawfish were seen, we spotted blacktip and lemon sharks along with some southern stingrays!

Day 7

Our last morning was another treat. We went for a snorkel in a stunning coral reef! After our swim, it was time for many of the team members to head home, but for the rest, the afternoon was busy with equipment deployments and shark captures.

Day 8

An extremely busy morning saw us catch and tag15 silky sharks. In addition to our standard tags, the team successfully deployed a SPOT (satellite) tag on a large silky shark.

The King of Andros, Fenton, also made an appearance! Fenton is a large dusky shark that we had previously tagged.

Day 9

Our last morning for the remainder of the team was our last opportunity to tag more silky sharks. After that, it was time for the group to fly home.

Thank you

Thank you to our research trip leaders Dr. Tristan Guttridge, Dr. Phil Matich, and Clark Morgan, for guiding the team through an incredibly successful week. A huge thank you to our research assistants for their passion, determination, and endless enthusiasm to work hard, learn, and produce results. We would also like to thank the Andros Island Bonefish Club for their hospitality, and the hardworking and ever professional Cole from PFO Charters for his top class boating and captaining skills.

Gratitude must also go to Clark Morgan for his generosity in allowing us to use his images in this blog.

Early results

Dusky - 1

Nurse shark - 1

Silky shark - 19

Total shark count for the week: 21