2024

Shark Week and SharkFest feature SMAST alumni and faculty

SMAST alumni and adjunct faculty appear in Discovery and Nat Geo shark programs, including a groundbreaking study on baby great white sharks.

Tobey Curtis and Megan Winton review data on white shark

Alumni Dr. Tobey Curtis and Dr. Megan Winton looking at the data retrieved from white shark Liberty’s tag at the UMassD School for Marine Science and Technology in New Bedford, MA. (National Geographic/Zara Tyne)

This year's Discovery Shark Week and Nat Geo SharkFest programming prominently features alumni and adjunct faculty from the UMassD School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST).

Uncharted territory in shark science

The Nat Geo SharkFest special Baby Sharks in the City follows a team of researchers on a mission to deploy the first-ever camera tag on a baby white shark off the coast of New York, believed to be the only white shark nursery in the North Atlantic.

The team of scientists leading this study includes two SMAST alumni: Fishery Management Specialist with NOAA’s Office of Sustainable Fisheries Tobey Curtis PhD '18 and Research Scientist at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Megan Winton PhD '24. Also leading the study is SMAST adjunct faculty and Senior Marine Fisheries Biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries Greg Skomal, one of the world's leading white shark experts.

Curtis, whose research helped to discover the North Atlantic's only white shark nursery, explains that this study comes at a critical time as climate change threatens young sharks' survival. "Warming waters are causing baby sharks to move east, closer to the hunting ground of adult white sharks off Cape Cod," he said.

"We know virtually nothing about baby white sharks, so this is uncharted territory in shark science."
Megan Winton, PhD '24

shark researchers looking out to sea after tagging a baby white shark

Dr. Megan Winton, Dr. Alisa “Harley” Newton, Dr. Tobey Curtis and Capt. Greg Metzger looking out to sea at sunset after a successful tag and release of Liberty, the baby white shark. (National Geographic/Brandon Sargeant)

While Winton and Skomal have deployed camera tags in the study of adult white sharks off Cape Cod and South Carolina, this is the first time scientists anywhere have obtained a shark's eye view from a newborn white shark's first year of life.

"We know virtually nothing about baby white sharks, so this is uncharted territory in shark science," said Winton. "As a little kid, I dreamed of being part of this, so it's really incredible."

Leading shark experts

SMAST alumnus Craig O'Connell PhD '14, known online as "The Shark Doctor," is a researcher, conservationist, and frequent contributor to Discovery Shark Week programming. O'Connell appears in a number of 2024 Shark Week programs, partnering with researchers studying white sharks in Canada, bull sharks in Florida, and mako sharks in southern California.

See below for a full list of the Discovery Shark Week and Nat Geo SharkFest programs featuring SMAST alumni and faculty:

Shark Frenzy: Mating Games – featuring SMAST alumnus Craig O'Connell PhD '14
Makozilla – featuring SMAST alumnus Craig O'Connell PhD '14
Sharks of the Dead Zone – featuring SMAST alumnus Craig O'Connell PhD '14
Great White North – featuring SMAST adjunct faculty Greg Skomal
Baby Sharks in the City – featuring SMAST alumni Tobey Curtis PhD '18 and Megan Winton PhD '24, and SMAST adjunct faculty Greg Skomal