In an exciting new partnership, veterinary technician Jennifer Edgel from the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium (LLPA) in Utah provided us with invaluable equipment and training to improve our shark blood collection procedures. Jen joined us in person for our 10-day expedition from Cabo Pulmo to La Paz, where we deployed baited cameras to assess pelagic population diversity and tagged and sampled blood from a juvenile tiger shark.

Now armed with a centrifuge, stylets, extension sets, syringes, and Eppendorf tubes, our team is now well-equipped to reliably collect high-quality blood samples from each shark we tag. These samples will be crucial in informing our understanding of baseline blood chemistry values in wild populations, population genetics, reproductive status, and stress induced by handling.

 A huge thank you to Jen and the LLPA for this incredible support—we look forward to working together in the years to come!