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Health & Environment

Shark Research At Texas A&M Galveston Campus

Marine biologists are studying sharks and their habitats to aid in the predators' conservation.
By Billy Smith, Texas A&M University Division of Marketing & Communications August 11, 2020

At Texas A&M University at Galveston, researchers are working to better understand the habitats and biology of sharks throughout a variety of marine ecosystems.

Philip Matich, an instructional assistant professor in the Department of Marine Biology, is one of the marine biologists gathering more information about the predators. This includes monitoring them through dropping cameras into water to study their movements, what they eat and how they interact with other animals.

“Understanding these predators is really important, because they sit at the top of these food webs, in the top of these ecosystems,” Matich said. “Either by eating different things or scaring things, they help regulate what’s going on. If we take those sharks away or if we change their behavior, we reduce the number of sharks that are there. It’s going to inherently change that network structure, potentially for the worse.”

Learn more about shark research at Texas A&M Galveston Campus.

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