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Sharks 3,
Researchers 0:
March 15, 2000
@Sea correspondent/
photographer,
Tim Calver |
Fernando de Noronha, Brazil -- When you walk up the road on Fernando de Noronha, away from la Porte and towards the shark museum, at the top of a hill you come to a split in the road. To the right lies the mountain Morro do Pico and Noronha's largest town, Vila dos Remedios. The road to the left leads to a small church overlooking a sheltered bay -- Buraco da Raquel. This small bay hosts a well-known group of lemon sharks. We can see them from the church -- big ones, maybe eight feet long -- four or five of them swimming lazily in circles. Signs in the shark museum point the way for visitors to observe them. |
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| Surrounded on all sides by cliffs and water, Baia do Sancho is an inaccessible paradise (until you learn its secret) |
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Our expedition's chief scientist, Dr. Gruber, has a little history with these animals. Last year, in the hopes of obtaining DNA samples from the big sharks of Buraco da Raquel, Dr. Gruber attempted to catch them. Large seine nets were set around the area. |
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Colored fishing boats fill the harbor at Baia de Santo Antonio. In the distance, Morro do Pico rises over the island.
Over terrain better suited to mountain goats, Dr. Gruber and staff carry equipment to the shark-catching project at Buraco da Raquel. The team used hooks tied to cement blocks ("block rigs") in an attempt to catch the lemon sharks that frequent this bay.
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Twenty researchers went into the water to work the nets as locals lined the cliffs to watch. It became a great source of amusement for the citizens of Noronha to watch their sharks make a mockery of the scientists and their nets. In the end, Dr. Gruber summed it up as "Sharks 1, Shark Researchers 0".
Today, after two days of fishing, the score stands at "Sharks 3, Shark Researchers 0". And Dr. Gruber is keeping score. He wants one of those sharks. Doc has held strategy meetings and reviewed the exact way to put the bait our hooks. He specified precise bait placement, and even pulled researchers away from the edge of the water just in case a shark might see mischievous looks on our faces. After hours of watching and waiting yesterday and today, we pulled our rigs from the water and headed for home defeated.
Getting skunked three times in a row might get us a bit depressed if we weren't anchored off one of the most beautiful islands in the world. Truth be told, science has taken a bit of a back seat to island life. Coming from rocky, low, barren Atol das Rocas, Noronha has been a mind-blowing contrast. Huge compared to Rocas, its area being measured in square kilometers as opposed to Rocas' square meters. Noronha's dramatic profile rises 300 meters above the waves. Smooth rock cliffs drop onto deserted beaches and everywhere that is not rock, sand or sea is covered in lush green leaves. And there are people here! On Rocas, we WERE the population. Here on Noronha, our small shore parties are quickly lost in crowds of tourists and locals. |
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