I know that I have already posted about our daily (sometimes twice-daily) chumming sessions out at Seal Island, but I wanted to share an example of our photographs of the white shark dorsal fins used for identification purposes, otherwise known in shark biology slang as simply "fin shots." Every shark in Mossel Bay has a completely unique dorsal fin, and they can vary depending on the shape of the fin (some are very pointy while others are very rounded, others have deformities, etc), the coloration (black or white pigment varies), and scars (you almost never find a shark that is not covered from scars caused by "hard living").
This week, I spent two straight days completely re-designing the identification database that we use as a catalog of every shark that has ever been sighted in Mossel Bay (since 2001). Each shark has an entry that includes two photos of their left and right dorsal fin sides, the date of every sighting for that specific shark, and all corresponding data such as length, nickname, size, sites frequented, etc. After re-working the database, I then wrote up a 3-page protocol so interns of the future could continue to add new sharks and old shark sightings under my guidelines. The end result of my work will be a photo catalog of every shark seen and photographed in Mossel Bay since 2001, along with updates of exactly every time this shark has been seen again in future chum sessions. Here are two examples of fin shots found in database for some of our sharky friends..........
