SHARK RESEARCH FIELD METHODS: FISHING, MEASURING, SAMPLING AND TAGGING

Through her various internship endeavors Melissa has become experienced in gill netting, seine netting, long-lining, rod and reel fishing, manual acoustic telemetry, preparing bait, recording and entering behavioral data of free swimming sharks, shark handling/transport (i.e. measurements, taking isotope samples, genetic samples, muscle biopsy, etc.), white shark photo identification, shark tagging and am proficient in tonic immobilization. 

BOATING EXPERIENCE

As an avid member of her school's sailing team and having lived aboard a catamaran for 3 weeks, she is capable of sailing large vessels and has experience with operating 16 ft. and 17 ft. skiffs, dinghies. She proudly has over 200 hours at sea.

SCUBA EXPERIENCE

Holding NAUI Advanced SCUBA Diver, Night Diver and U/W Environment certifications. Melissa has over 100 dives from around the world (i.e.: Galapagos, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Cuba, South Africa, British Virgin Islands, Belize, Puerto Rico, Australia), including wreck dives, deep dives, drift dives and night dives; she is also a novice free-diver.

LABORATORY SKILLS

Melissa has experience using analytical balances, centrifuges, filter sterilization, gel systems, micropipets, pH meters, conductivity meters, microscopes and spectrophotometers. She has used dissecting scopes and have dissected over 40 sharks. 

COMPUTER SKILLS

Proficient with ArcGIS Explorer, R Program, Sigma Plot, all Microsoft programs, underwater video analysis programs, and Audacity. 

LANGUAGES

Bilingual, knows English and Spanish fluently.