Shark Biology
By: Mateo
Shark Biology
By: Mateo
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Ever heard of the slogan a man's best friend is his dog? Well to a shark biologist a man's best friend is the 27 foot Gray White Shark circling the boat just wa iting until you slip and fall into the water so he can make you his new meal. Left: A shark biologist gets a rare chance to pet a Great White Shark. |
| Right: A Great White Shark off of the coast of South Africa performs an act called breaching. The shark comes from below his prey and swims up rapidly and grabs his prey with such speed the it ends up breaking the surface grabbing a seal. It is very rare to experience such a sight and to do so is something a Shark Biologist would never forget. |  |
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Left: The popular Jaws movie directed by Steven Spielberg scared many people away from the water. The movie depicted the Great White Shark as the most terrifying killing machine in the world. |
Many underestimate the difficulty of becoming and being a Shark Biologist. Then being successful and well-known Shark Biologist is even harder. As Aiden, a Shark Biologist at ReefQuestCentre for Shark Research puts it; his path to success has been full of “very traditional and highly unorthodox steps, requiring equal parts perseverance…[and] sheer luck.” In fact, he compares the difficulty of becoming a Shark Biologist to becoming an astronaut. Becoming a Shark biologist requires years of study in school to be capable of handling the knowledge required to be successful. Marine and Shark biologists alike begin their educational preparation starting in high school with lots of math and science classes. Basic college education includes the acquisition of a Masters degree and studying in many honors science courses in highly regarded universities.
Once you complete your graduate degree and get the honor to be named a Shark Biologist the real work begins; countless hours in the classroom teaching, dedicated time in the lab and never-ending begging for funds to support the cost of your research. And then when you've got the time you might be able to spend some time in the “field” or in your case the ocean. Recording data of sharks is a very difficult task because after all they are animals and even worse with sharks, sleek hunters. A lot of the time that you're in the field the experience will be unpleasant; either weather wise or going hours or days without finding what you’re looking for including sharks. Because of this a Shark Biologist can work years or even his or her whole life working on one aspect of a shark.
Related Links
| The Shark Trust | Brief descriptions on different career opportunities dealing with sharks |
| The Mote Marine Laboratory's Center for Shark Research | The Mote Laboratory has lots of good general information on sharks |
| The Biological Sciences Department at State University of New York at Stony Brook | A good website about becoming a Shark Biologist |
| ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research | Another good one for becoming a Shark Biologist |
| White Shark Diving Co. Photo Gallery | Lots of cool pictures of cage diving with Great White Sharks |
| Shark Attack Photos | This site has a couple pictures of victims of shark attacks |
| Apex Predators | A cool site showing sharks doing the rare act of breaching off of the coast of South Africa |
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