Global FinPrint BRUV Surveys

Expedition Aboard DISCOVERY Yacht Fugitive
March 2016

SeaKeepers teamed up with Global FinPrint, an organization dedicated to assessing shark and ray populations worldwide and understanding the key roles they play in tropical reef ecosystems. With the support of D/Y Fugitive and crew, we worked with two Global FinPrint scientists from the State University of New York at Stony Brook to deploy Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) systems to complete a New Providence Island elasmobranch survey. In total, 25 BRUV’s were deployed, collecting over 2250 minutes of footage, capturing on film a variety of marine life including reef sharks, a tiger shark, a nurse shark, a southern stingray, moray eels, groupers, snappers, and other reef fish. Several sharks observed were notably fouled- they had hooks in their mouths, meaning fishing is present in the area.

Scientific Publication

Clementi, G.M., Babcock, E.A., Valentin-Albanese, J., Bond, M.E., Flowers, K.I., Heithaus, M.R., Whitman, E.R., Bergmann, M.P.M.V.Z., Guttridge, T.L., Shea, O.R.O., Shipley, O.N., Brooks, E.J., Kessel, S.T., Chapman, D.D., 2021. Anthropogenic pressures on reef-associated sharks in jurisdictions with and without directed shark fishing. Marine Ecology Progress Series (661) 175-186.