A Caribbean reef shark in a mild form of tonic immobility whilst being blood sampled by the CEI shark team.
One of the biggest problems facing anyone interested in the physiology fish is how to generate a baseline level of blood chemistry. What does the blood chemistry of a fish look like if it hasn’t been captured, handled, poked and prodded all in the name of science? What are the normal levels of lactate, glucose, carbon dioxide etc., to which we can compare our “stressed” samples to?
For small fish this is relatively easy. Take the recent work on bonefish by the Flats Ecology and Conservation Program here at Cape Eleuthera Institute. Bonefish were housed in darkened holding chambers with a steady supply of fresh seawater for 36 hours upon which they were rapidly removed and blood sampled before the blood chemistry could change. However, it is a tricky proposition to try and apply this technique to a 6ft Caribbean reef shark!
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