Features

🇨🇼 Papiamentu (English below) Entre Juli i Òktober 2022, nos a entrevistá 24 piskadó (semi)profeshonal na e isla di Kòrsou, ku ta forma parti di e teritorio Hulandes Karibense. Mediante nan disposishon pa kompartí nan konosementu ekológiko balioso, nos a logra haña pèrspikasia di peskería artesanal(tradishonal) di e isla. Tambe nos a haña sa kon…
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I am glad to announce that my thesis has been published both in print and online. For the past five years, I have worked with a great team of colleagues, fishers, conservationists and local communities to study the impact of fisheries on sharks and rays in large intertidal areas, and how this may affect their…
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In a first for the region, highly threatened sharks and rays have been tagged and released by scientists in the Bijagos Archipelago, off the coast of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. The main goal of the expedition was to determine why these species use the shallow waters of the archipelago. During the four-week expedition, a team…
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We are happy to announce the fourth edition of the Azores Shark & Ray Safari is going to take place in the summer of 2024. Make sure to register soon to be part of it! Sharks and rays are often the highlight of a dive if you’re lucky enough to see them in the short…
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Over the past decade my research and travel plans have taken me all around the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean. Now, it was time to venture into the hearth of this ocean. Close to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge lies a group of island that experience the full forces of this ocean on a daily basis: The…
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We are currently in the midst of preparing for another expedition to the beautiful Bijagos Archipelago in Guinea Bissau. With a core team of 6 researchers and students of the University of Groningen (RUG) and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and two technicians and drone operators from The Fieldwork Company we will…
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Over the last decade, scientific research and conservation work focused on sharks and rays has increased vastly due to the dramatic population and increased media attention for these species groups. Until now scientific research has mainly focused on sharks and rays on tropical coral reefs or in association with pelagic and bottom fisheries. This bias…
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Although we published this paper already two (almost three, geez!) year ago, I think it is a paper worth sharing here as well. Together with Craig O’Connell (O’Seas Conservation Foundation) and a whole expedition team we set out to try a novel technique to non-invasively identify and measure great hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna mokarran). The technique…
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After the exciting news of the silky sharks on the Saba Bank two weeks ago, this time we move a bit Southeast from Saba to the Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius (better known as Statia) for another shark-story. Throughout Spring 2015 and Summer 2016, multiple observations were made of a, for Statia’s waters, undocumented shark species: the lemon…
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As we set out to the immense Saba Bank to do regular dives last Thursday, our captain spotted two small sharks at the surface. One glance at the surface and I realized these sharks were a bit more special than the regular residents, Caribbean reef sharks and nurse sharks. In fact, I soon started screaming…
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