Western Ecology Tour
I am delighted to be joining an awesome expedition team this June, developed and led by professional diver Andy Clark (https://andythenortherndiver.com/). The UK’s marine environments are under more pressure than ever before. From the plastic pollution littering our beaches to the damage done by discarded fishing gear and intensive or sometimes illegal fishing practices. It […]
Shark DNA Zip-coding; a way to identify the origin of sharks caught for the international fin trade.
In February 2016 I was in Hong Kong looking into the shark fin trade, it was a couple of days before the Chinese New Year and there were fins everywhere, to suit all types of consumer. You could buy them in general food stores, pharmacies and fishing villages. You could buy small ones in plastic […]
ICCAT 2019 Mako Shark Protection thwarted by EU & US
Back in June 2019, a report showed that the overfished North Atlantic shortfin mako shark population was continuing to decline and needed not only immediate protection but would take several decades to recover. To read my full write-up for BiOME Ecology webzine please follow the link: https://biomeecology.com/marine-biology/2019/11/iccat-2019-mako-shark-protection-thwarted-by-eu-us/
How do Sharks Grow?
Over the years I have been asked all sorts of questions about sharks, covering a broad range of pretty much everything, from; “Do sharks fart?” to “How do sharks grow?” Let’s start with the latter, this was asked by an Ecologist friend; Heather Lyons, and is a particular favourite of mine, not least because the […]
What is Biofluorescence? Shining a light on biofluorescence in UK waters.
Biofluorescence is essentially the ability of an organism, to absorb electromagnetic wavelengths from the visible light spectrum by fluorescent compounds, and the subsequent emission of this at a lower energy level. In this blog piece for the BiOME Ecology webzine i talk to plant pathologist James Lynott about this incredible phenomenon: https://biomeecology.com/news/2019/10/shining-a-light-on-shark-biofluorescence-dr-l-smith/
Call of the Blue
On the 19th of November i headed down to the Natural History Museum in London, i was attending a book launch party and would be doing a Q&A session on sharks whilst there. The book by Philip Hamilton is entitled “Call of the Blue” and tells the story of positive, focused people who are working […]
Investigating Shark Cage Diving
My blog for The Guardian online, following the decision to ban cage diving in New Zealand : https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2018/sep/17/is-banning-cage-diving-actually-bad-for-sharks
Beach cleans & shark guts… it’s all rubbish
Alongside my work as a shark biologist, I am a volunteer for the charity Surfers Against Sewage. As part of this role I organise and participate in numerous beach cleans along the U.K. coastline, more often than not the bulk of rubbish that we remove during these cleans are plastic items. Now assuming you haven’t […]
Life After Death: How we hatched live shark pups from dead females
Here I report on a conservation project by Sharklab-Malta that i became involved with; removing eggcases from trawl captured sharks, hatching them out and releasing them back into the wild. https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2018/feb/19/life-after-death-how-we-hatched-live-shark-pups-from-dead-parents
Glow in the dark shark!
In my tenth shark piece for the Guardian I report on a recently discovered deep sea shark that glows in the dark… Light emitted by a new species of lanternshark, Etmopterus lailae, is camouflage and helps them to hunt, communicate and find partners. But how does it work?