Every oceanic whitetip shark has a fin pattern as unique as a human fingerprint.
In a new study published in Marine Biology, FIU researchers identified more than 50 oceanic whitetip sharks by their fins alone using pelagic baited remote underwater video stations, pBRUVS, off the coast of Cat Island, The Bahamas.
The use of BRUVS is nothing new in the field of marine biology, according to the team, but the strategic use of pelagic BRUVS, or those not connected to the seafloor or a reef, was unique in this location due to the relative abundance of the critically endangered oceanic whitetip shark in the area and the depth of water.
"One of the key aspects of managing and conserving an endangered species — or any species — is being able to track trends in the population over time," said Yannis Papastamatiou, an FIU marine biologist and researcher in the FIU Institute of Environment.
Is the population declining, stable or starting to increase?
"When you're talking about marine predators in the ocean, that's very difficult to answer — much harder than with terrestrial predators," Papastamatiou continued. "If you want an idea of the abundance of lions, you can do airplane surveys and count them. But in the marine environment, you can't see things, so that's very difficult to do."
