All posts tagged: shark tagging in the cayman islands

Shark Conservation Cayman in a Nutshell

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Who are we? Shark Conservation Cayman is a collaboration between the Department of Environment and Marine Conservation International, supported by the White Tip Conservation Fund from the Cayman Islands Brewery.  Together with a network of volunteers, the team is working towards a better understanding of our local shark populations. Shark Conservation Cayman and fellow collaborators work in Cayman to study and monitor our local sharks and improve conservation management in the Cayman Islands. So how do we do that? In order to protect sharks we need to study and understand their behaviour and life characteristics and use what we’ve learnt to raise awareness in local communities around the importance of sharks to healthy reefs and our Cayman marine environment. Since sharks are highly mobile animals with the whole ocean to roam in, studying them is no easy feat. In Cayman we use multiple, complementary methods one of which is “Acoustic Telemetry”. This means we tag a shark with an acoustic tag. Then, by utilizing a network of receivers located around the three Islands, we pick up …

A Call to Action: Help Shark Conservation. Adopt a Shark.

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As custodians of our stunning coral reefs and charismatic marine life, for over 30 years the Cayman Islands Department of Environment (DOE) has been protecting our island’s precious marine environment by establishing marine parks. Since 2015, the DOE increased marine protection by designating Cayman’s waters as a sharks and rays sanctuary, under the National Conservation Law. In part of DOE’s shark conservation efforts, shark research is an ongoing project to gather data about Cayman’s shark populations and monitor their behavior and patterns. Additionally, CayBrew’s Whitetip Fund supports DOE’s shark project with a focus on tagging sharks to improve shark research and conservation efforts in the Cayman Islands. The shark project utilizes four methods as a means to comprehensively gather pertinent data about Cayman’s sharks. The methods used are: tagging with an acoustic transmitter, BRUV (baited remote underwater video) surveys, photo identification of individual sharks and shark sighting logging. To read more about this ongoing project click here Sharks are of significant value to our coral reefs and other marine environments. According to a report by …

Spotted: Shark Conservation in Action

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In 2009, the Cayman Islands Department of Environment (DOE), in partnership with Marine Conservation International (MCI), began studying Cayman’s sharks.  This initiative was originally sponsored by a UK Darwin Plus grant and by CayBrew’s, Whitetip Fund.  The Darwin Plus project has recently concluded and subsequently, since the beginning of the year, the project is now fully supported locally by CayBrew’s Whitetip Fund and continues to focus on improving shark research and conservation efforts in Cayman. In recent developments and in part due to the hard work and efforts of both DOE and MCI, sharks and rays were included as totally protected species in the December 2013, National Conservation Law the provisions of that law effectively make the waters of the Cayman Islands a shark and ray sanctuary, since April 2015.  Shark research continues in order to monitor Cayman’s shark populations.  The research helps to better understand our sharks and the threats they face which results in better informed management decisions and ultimately more effective protection and conservation.  Providing a safe haven is key to effective …