Shark class continues while funds are raised to rebuild remote island lab
There are not many classes that allow students to live beachside, wander tidal pools just outside of their lecture hall, take home their own dissected shark skull and crew an offshore research survey. Biology of Sharks and Rays, offered jointly by the University of Florida and Florida State University, is the exception. The course name is innocuous compared to the two-week, four-credit hours that it entails. It pushes learning beyond the classroom and into the field, where students don’t just study sharks but handle them.
Enrollment is currently open, and for the 12 or so students who snag a spot, this summer is sure to be a memorable one.
“If you’re deeply curious and reasonably adventurous, I think you might really enjoy this course,” said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Naylor teaches the class every year alongside Dean Grubbs, associate director of research at Florida State University’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory.
In the past, students in the shark class split their time equally between FSU’s marine lab in St. Teresa and UF’s off-grid lab on Seahorse Key, one of the 13 barrier islands that make up the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge. UF has leased 3 acres of the unpopulated island as home to its Seahorse Key Marine Lab since the 1950s.
Unfortunately, after avoiding serious damage by Hurricane Idalia in 2023, the lab on Seahorse Key was hit by Hurricane Helene a year later. The storm delivered 84 mph wind gusts and a 10-foot storm surge, the highest in the recorded history of the island and others nearby, collectively called Cedar Key. Floodwaters lifted the laboratory off its footers, and the building, which was constructed in the 1950s, could not be salvaged.
Field courses on the island have been put on pause while UF raises the funds to rebuild. To date, the university has raised over $150,000 to construct a new lab space, with additional support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The new structure will come equipped with solar panels and an updated drinking water system.