Hidden Depths

By Taryn Allgower

From Hollywood blockbusters like "Jaws" to the media phenomenon of Shark Week, everyone has opinions about sharks. Whether we find them terrifying or misunderstood, we think we know a lot about them. In fact we don't, and the sharks off Oregon's coast are a mystery. We know little about their habits and how they affect our coastal ecosystems. 

Enter researchers from Oregon State University's Chapple Big Fish Lab, who are studying the sharks from a base in the coastal fishing town of Newport, Oregon. Filling about half a floor overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the Gladys Valley Marine Studies building, the lab headquarters a small research group led by Dr. Taylor Chapple.

Dr. Chapple has studied sharks in the Pacific for roughly two decades, his work ranges from Australia to California to South Africa. In 2019, he brought his research to Oregon’s less-studied sharks and opened the Chapple Big Fish Lab to help us understand more about this apex predator. 

The work isn't easy. Treacherous oceans and unpredictable sharks make for risky days in the field and tedious lab work. 

“The oceans here are completely unforgiving,” said Chapple. Also, these sharks are hard to find, because they don’t gather in predictable places at predictable times. 

In southern places like California, shark behavior is more predictable, and easier to study, because we know their diets and migration patterns. The same is true for sharks in northern places like Alaska. But here in Oregon, we live in a zone of empty knowledge about sharks, and for Chapple, this is the perfect chance for new and exciting research.

One pandemic and five years after the Chapple Big Fish Lab opened, the lab has a team of approximately nine researchers studying Oregon’s mysterious sharks. Their workspaces are roughly four feet tall, neon teal cubbies stacked next to each other on the third floor of the Gladys Valley Marine Studies building. Their workspace is covered with decorations like stuffed shark animals and adorable cartoon shark stickers. 

You wouldn't know it by looking at Ph.D student Jessica Schulte, that she catches sharks and tilts them upside down until they vomit for a living. “For whatever reason, sharks aren't charismatic megafauna, the scientific term for animals that people care about,” said Schulte. Her research is fixing this dynamic by understanding how one species lives in Oregon. 

Schulte studies broadnose sevengill sharks, that can grow to about 10 feet in length and weigh over 200 pounds, and are found across the Pacific and western Atlantic oceans. These ancient fish are so big that they can even get mistaken for great white sharks. Schulte studies where these sharks go and what they eat. 

Like so many Oregon coastal sharks, sevengills can be hard to find. You need a boat and good luck. The lab has the boat, and Schulte seems to have luck, but not in Oregon. Schulte has luck finding sharks in a Washington bay, where she has tagged 42. But Oregon’s waters remain a mysterious ground for sharks - including the sevengill. However, when the lab does find sharks here, the process is quite tedious. 

“It is a recreational fisherman boat, but we've retrofitted it to basically be our research vessel,” said Schulte. They bought this boat, an Arima Sea Legend, due to its styrofoam-like composition so that it floats even in rocky conditions. Even heavy seas can be withstood by the boat – but like others who know the ocean, this crew knows when to not risk their luck in poor weather. 

Although other research vessels work in the area, the Big Fish Lab needed a boat that could be configured to meet their needs. For example, they welded a large crane, or davit, onto the boat so they can bring sharks onboard safely.

When any team member takes the lab’s boat out on the ocean, they search for sharks using a variety of trial-and-error baiting techniques. These range from dropping down salmon-laden hooks to using a hand-line technique to reel in the shark. If the researchers get lucky, they may catch a shark on a hook tied to a submerged concrete block, which anchors their line connected to a buoy. When the buoy bobs, they know they’ve hit the jackpot.

“It's funny because once the sharks get to the surface of the water they seem almost confused. The hardest part is easily getting them onto the cradle, but once we get them in place they basically seem fine and just accept it,” said Schulte. 

Once the shark is on the boat, they insert a hose deep into the mouth of the shark to flush out their gills to assure the shark can breathe. While the shark is in the boat, they take its measurements and a clip of the fin to show other researchers the shark has been tagged and identified. 

While this may sound routine, graduate student researchers Maddie English and Ethan Personius spend their research time looking for sharks even more elusive than the sevengill.

Maddie English studies salmon sharks, looking for the presence of microparticle contamination in their stomachs. These particles are thought to be correlated to plastics in our oceans. “As far as microplastics in sharks, they haven't really been studied,” said English. 

Shark stomachs smell awful. About the size of a laptop and a few inches tall with dark brown bubble-like markings, the stomach I saw looked slimy and floppy, like a middle school slime project gone wrong.

English and a lab intern put the stomach into a large tupperware box containing potassium hydroxide, which dissolves the stomach, revealing its contents. English then put the remnants into dozens of petri dishes to be analyzed for tiny micro-particles under a microscope. By looking at these micro-particles, English is answering questions about contaminants in our oceans and how they affect our sharks.

These projects are two examples of strides that researchers in the Chapple lab are making to improve our knowledge about Oregon's sharks.

Researchers have been spreading the word about their work using social media. Their Instagram account, @big_fish_lab, offers the perfect blend of shark science and entertainment. Through witty captions, updated expedition content and constant trivia, the lab knows how to get people interested in sharks. For example, you can check out the journey of a great white shark named “Aimee P” in her travels across the world or even get a glimpse of their #BigFishFriday fun facts. 

The team has a sense of humor, too, and they've spawned a spin-off Instagram account called the Big Chip Lab. While out on the water doing their research, they rate new bags of potato chips – as if they were the sharks being caught and tagged. There is nothing quite like seeing the team measure out a bag of Tostitos on a shark net. 

Aside from social media, The Big Fish Lab extends its outreach efforts within Oregon. This summer, they hosted their “Summer of the Shark'' series, where the researchers shared their shark expertise with the Oregon coastal community. For this series, the lab partnered with local businesses, Pelican Brewing Co. and Mcmenamins to share their "sharkspertise". There is nothing quite like people from all walks of life coming to enjoy a pint of beer and learn about groundbreaking shark science at the same time. 

By fostering dialogue between scientists and the public, the Big Fish Lab inspires curiosity about sharks. These researchers show that no matter how hard it might be to find these sharks, that does not diminish their importance to our oceans. 

While research continues, so do the challenges. Schulte and some team members were in the boat searching for sevengills a few months ago. They cruised out into the water to find sharks, and then the engine died. So not only did they not catch any sharks, but they had to wade their way back into port. 

Shark research isn’t always pretty or easy, and these stories are testament to the challenges. Regardless of obstacles, they will always persevere in the quest to find out all they can about Oregon’s elusive sharks. 

If there is a will, there is a way, and the Chapple Big Fish Lab has all the will imaginable.