Fieldwork in Belgium
- Lotte Dahlmo
- Jul 18
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 21
PhD Candidate Lotte S Dahlmo visited two early career researchers at VLIZ in Belgium this week. In the fall of 2023, Lotte Pohl and David Casals, both employed at VLIZ, reached out to Lotte to collaborate on an application to the Euromarine OYSTER Call for Proposals for Marine ECR (early career researcher) Cooperation Project. With great satisfaction, their EMFish project was accepted and funded through the call. The EMFish project's overall aim is to study the effects of human-made electromagnetic fields from offshore wind farms on the behaviour of sharks in the North Sea, in addition to test novel sensors that's under development.
The week started with a tour given by David of their facilities, research vessels, and different kinds of equipment.
Later in the week, the weather was perfect to go out and try to fish and sharks with EMF tags. The big question was whether we would be able to catch any sharks. The field day started with catching bait, shrimps and crabs, before they went out with the 'Abbé Mann' research vessel and drove close to a wind farm to catch sharks. Several rods were deployed simultaneously, and then it was just to wait in excitement.
Lotte, David, Lotte P and the three other crew members were so joyous when one of the rods started to show that someone was biting on, and after some minutes of reeling, because this one was strong, it turned out to be the targeted Starry Smooth Hound shark (Mustelus asterias)!!! After dehooking the shark, the shark was put in a holding tank to let it recover and relax before being tagged.
The tagging went very well and it was placed back into the holding tank to let it recovery from the small surgery. After around 10-15 minutes, the shark was released back close to where it was caught. The EMFish crew together with the Captain and the other two crew members were able to catch and tag another two male sharks before they returned to Oostende.
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