2018 came and went tumultuously for the world in general with many ominous signs for science and the environment, not the least of which is the current partial government shutdown that will be slowing or stalling work by me, many of my colleagues, and countless other researchers working at or collaborating with several U.S. federal agencies. But despite...

A commonly-used quote from John Shepherd states, “Managing fisheries is hard: it’s like managing a forest, in which the trees are invisible and keep moving around.” This is particularly true for highly migratory species like sharks, for which the full range is often poorly understood even for the most well-known species. In the past, fish movements...

Some shark species love estuaries, and North Carolina has the second-largest estuarine system in the continental United States, the Albemarle/Pamlico system that includes the giant lagoon Pamlico Sound. North Carolina estuaries and the sharks that call them home have been on my mind for some time: estuarine sharks made up over half of my PhD dissertation...

One of the perks of living within a reasonable driving distance of Washington D.C. is that you get to be around for major events.  Over the weekend I was present for two events that directly addressed the current and future state of science in the United States, one as a participant and the other as an observer.  Each of these events approached the...

Last week the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) Movement of Life Initiative tagging efforts went on the road as I headed south to Florida’s Treasure Coast in search of cownose rays and bull sharks.  Both of these species are the focus of Movement of Life acoustic tagging efforts, and both are known to inhabit this part of the U.S. Atlantic...

‘Tis the season for end-of-year recaps, and I’m certainly up for jumping on the bandwagon. 2016 was year that I wanted to try and revive this blog a bit, which was at least partially successful.  Finishing up a dissertation didn’t do me any favors as far as posting frequency, but adopting a “quality over quantity” posting strategy did manage to bring...