36 ForOregonState.org/Stater most sharks have five — seem to time their seasonal appearance with salmon, but we don’t know much about what they’re doing here. Understanding sharks is important because the eaters at the top of the food chain play a key role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. If we want healthy, harvestable fisheries, we need to understand the sharks that keep marine systems balanced. Even seagrass and coral reefs depend, indirectly, on sharks. Moving quickly and carefully, Schulte inserts a PVC pipe into the shark’s mouth and aims a hose so water flows over the gills, allowing the shark to breathe.To reduce the animal’s stress, she covers its lidless eyes with a small wet towel. Jurado steps in to hold the head and hose, while Schulte grabs the tape measure. The second undergrad, Ester Alexander, records the data. This shark, a female, is seven feet and four inches long, about three feet around and 145 pounds: on the mediumlarge side for this species. Sharks are big fish with a big, big PR problem. They aren’t cute like otters or seals. They don’t do jumping tricks like dolphins. Even orcas — another apex predator — are glorious to watch, and they’ve got Free Willy. Sharks — consistently portrayed as giant eating machines, mindless killers or even savage megalodon attackers — got the devastation wreaked by Jaws. Chapple is wary enough of media sensationalism that when invited to appear on Snoop Dogg’s “Sharkadelic Summer” he declined. He notes that many so-called attacks can be ascribed to curiosity. Lacking hands, a shark has only one toothy way to grab something and check it out. Generally, they aren’t interested in us. “If sharks wanted to eat us, we’d be easy pickings. There would be a lot fewer of us around. No one would go in the water,” Chapple said. “But thankfully, humans simply aren’t on their menu.” Fear also lends to sharks’ invisibility. People assume that if sharks were around, they’d be attacking people, so when people don’t get bitten, they figure sharks aren’t there. Take this bay. Oysters have been harvested here for centuries by Indigenous peoples and commercially farmed since the mid-1800s. But ask a local, Schulte said, and they’ll answer definitively: “There are no sharks in this bay.” Schulte shrugged. “I always tell people: If you’ve been in the ocean, you’ve been with a shark.” This PR problem matters because the stories we tell shape our attitudes and our actions. If we don’t care about sharks, we’re not going to pay attention, much less spend resources to understand and protect them. Relatively little funding is currently available for shark research.And the research is expensive. The most sophisticated biotags with cameras cost $10,000 each. Schulte began her doctoral program by applying for more than 40 grants. She’s paying the boat costs for this trip (about $500 per day) from her dissertation budget. Chapple applies for about 25 grants each year. ڿ Doctoral candidate Jessica Schulte. ۄ Chapple wrangles the hooked shark.
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