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Tuesday, December 02, 2008, 08:00
It's not everyone's idea of fun, but it's all in a day's work for one RAF officer from Gloucester.
Pilot Officer Matthew Skulskyj, 22, is part of Joint Services Shark Tagging Team – a team of experienced divers with the principle task of assisting scientists to tag sharks.
Pilot Officer Skulskyj, who grew up in Churchdown and attended Sir Thomas Rich's School in Gloucester, has just returned from the Coco's Islands in Costa Rica where he spent time working for the Shark Research Institute.
Given that the Coco's Islands were the setting for Jurassic Park, the exercise was named Exercise Jurassic Shark.
The aim of the expedition was to tag Great White Sharks, Whale Sharks and Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks around Guadalupe and the Revillagigedo (Socorro) Islands, off the Pacific coast of Mexico.
The tagging is necessary in order to assist with the research being carried out on each species, to publicise the plight of sharks generally and to expose military personnel to scientific work in an adventurous setting.
Pilot Officer Skulskyj describes a typical day.
"A fin breaks the surface of the water momentarily behind the boat, swiftly disappearing back under the dark blue water around Guadalupe.
"You can see a dark shape slowly approaching the side of the small fibreglass boat where large lumps of bait are tied. You start to prepare yourself, checking what now looks to be a woefully inadequate pole spear which resembles a tent pole more than a piece of scientific equipment.
"You only have one chance and your aim has to be exact; too high and you'll miss, too low and you can potentially injure the very species you're trying to protect.
"This is it, the shape changes direction and builds up speed, rapidly approaching the bait tied just three feet below the thin deck. It's getting closer, you can see the mouth begin to open showing row upon row of razor sharp triangular teeth, the eyes beginning to roll back.
"Suddenly it breaches the surface and you're looking down the mouth of a five and half metre Great White Shark. There is no time to think twice, you thrust the spear into the water, catching the shark in exactly the right spot just below the dorsal fin.
"The shark reacts, flicking its tail into the side of the boat, pushing it violently across the water. The shark swims back down to the depths; however, it's now trailing a £1,000 radio tag that will monitor its movements over the coming year."
The team had access to a variety of scientific monitoring equipment; radio transmitters, archival pop up satellite tags (for whale sharks), and underwater radio receivers which were deployed at various sites to collect the data supplied by the tagged sharks.
The tags were deployed either from a very small glass fibre boat in the case of the Great Whites, or via free swimming using a spear gun for Hammerheads, Galapagos and Whales sharks.
The expedition was a great success with the team deploying all radio tags.
Unfortunately, the satellite tags could not be deployed due to a lack of whale sharks, however, they were given to one of the scientists who would be returning to the area in an attempt to deploy them later in November.
There are plans to run another trip back to the Coco's Islands in 2010.
Any member of the Armed Forces interested in joining the expedition should visit www.jurassic-shark.org.uk
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