Aaron Carlisle

Just in time for Shark Week, the ocean's most famous predators are experiencing a redemption arc. Marine ecologists at the University of Delaware have fitted sharks with sensors and sent them out into the Atlantic Ocean to gather data that could help predict hurricanes. The research is led by UD professors Aaron Carlisle and Matt Oliver and PhD student Caroline Wiernicki. Enlisting sharks as amateur meteorologists comes at a critical time. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's capacity to forecast hurricanes has been hampered by federal cuts to staff and funding. Sharks also help speed things up. NOAA has partnered with UD and other Mid-Atlantic universities, which deploy gliders to the continental shelf to collect data that tell researchers what the water column looks like as hurricane season approaches. The gliders are effective but also slow moving and expensive to deploy and maintain. The researchers have successfully deployed three tags: two conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) tags on two mako sharks (for oceanographic data collection); and a satellite tag on one white shark (to help evaluate if that species would be a good candidate for CTD tagging down the road). As of July 21, the white shark has been pinging the research team ever since he was tagged in May. He was recently tracked off Martha's Vineyard and has been surfacing every day – showing up in areas like Cape Cod and Long Island. The mako sharks were tagged off of the Delaware coast and swam south, bopping up and down between the Delmarva Peninsula and just north of Cape Hatteras. Carlisle, Oliver and Wiernicki are available for interviews. To reach Carlisle directly, visit his ExpertFile profile and click on the contact button. Interested journalists can also send an email to MediaRelations@udel.edu.

In Delaware, recreational shark fishing is popular, with anglers taking part in halfand full-day shark fishing trips. However, they are prohibited from keeping protected species of sharks. A University of Delaware research team led by Aaron Carlisle, assistant professor in UD's School of Marine Science and Policy (SMSP), is studying the impact of releasing these sharks, aiming to understand their post-release survival and how fishing operations handle them. Carlisle, graduate student Bethany Brodbeck and Ed Hale, assistant professor and aquaculture specialist for Delaware Sea Grant, are conducting the field research for the study, riding along with recreational fishing vessels to better understand what happens to sharks when they are caught and released. Another component to the research is being led by George Parsons, E.I. du Pont Professor at UD’s College of Earth, Ocean and Environment, who is looking at the economic aspect, using survey-based research to value the shark fishery and study anglers’ perceptions and attitudes toward sharks and their management. Carlisle said the two concurrent studies will help gauge the biological and economic impacts of the shark fishery in Delaware. “We want to find out how much money the fishery is actually drawing to the economy,” Carlisle said. “We also want to find out how the fishery is actually impacting the populations of sharks in Delaware, especially the protected ones.” The research was funded by Delaware Sea Grant, which helps communities wisely use, manage and conserve coastal resources. To arrange an interview with Carlisle, simply click on the link to his profile. Pressing the contact button and using the form will send your request directly to him and a member of UD's media relations team.