Anti-Semitism among Florida pro-Batista Cuban Americans

An interesting 27 April 2021 article by Jordan Levin in the USA. Though maybe it talks too much about people of Latin American ancestry in general, while in fact, anti-Semitism is especially a problem among the part of Cuban Americans who prefer the pre-1959 Batista dictatorship in Cuba, supported by the CIA, to the post-1959 situation.

Some quotes:

Antisemitism rises among Hispanic Miami’s right wing

The graffiti messages scrawled around Miami in March, on the eve of Passover and Holocaust Remembrance Day, were shocking: “The Jews are the Problem” “Zionism is Satanism.”

Most ominously in this city filled with Cubans … was this one: “Communism is Judaism.”

The phrase echoed a trend towards antisemitism in Miami’s right-wing Hispanic political circles that have come to dominate this bellwether city:

•In 2018 Miami-based Radio Television Marti, the federally funded broadcaster of anti-Communist messaging to Cuba, ran a report blaming Soros for orchestrating the 2008 financial collapse, and supporting narco-terrorism and Cuban schemes. … the report was exposed and denounced as antisemitic in 2019.

•Last year, Libre, a 40-page Spanish-language insert published by a longtime right-wing Cuban exile activist and filled with racist, extremist opinion pieces, was distributed in El Nuevo Herald, the Miami Herald’s sister paper, for 32 weeks. The op-eds said Black Lives Matter was worse than the Nazis, called out Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg as Jews, and compared American Jews to Cubans brainwashed by communism. Following public backlash, El Nuevo Herald’s managing editor resigned and the Miami Herald’s publisher and executive editor lost her position as publisher.

•Last October a group of over 150 parents, including Vince Lago, the recently-elected mayor of the prosperous municipality of Coral Gables, the former speaker of the Florida House, and other prominent figures, sent a letter to an elite private Catholic girls school, castigating it for launching an anti-racism program in response to numerous reports of racism among students and faculty. The letter cited the malign influence of “Cultural Marxism” and the Frankfurt School, parroting a conspiracy theory that blames progressive U.S. social and racial justice movements on German Jewish scholars who fled the Nazis. …

But Rivero says he frequently encountered “Jews are communists” and other antisemitic posts in conservative Cuban social media groups during 2020, as well as death threats from Trump supporters. …

Antisemitism rose across the U.S. during the Trump administration.

But the insular nature of Miami’s Hispanic community, particularly among a conservative Cuban faction that has reversed a years-long moderating trend to become politically dominant again, appears to be magnifying that tilt here, while making it more acceptable for leaders to ignore or even encourage the slide towards prejudice.

No politician condemned the antisemitic graffiti. The signatories on the Catholic school letter, which was covered by the Miami Herald and the Miami New Times, defended their calls to abandon teaching about racism.

“The idea that equality and racial equity are rooted in a socialist Jewish group – that’s ridiculous,” said Billy Corben, the Jewish filmmaker lambasted by the Miami commissioner, who first exposed the letter on Twitter. “You cannot minimize the impact of these very powerful and influential policymakers who have signed this letter.”

Jessica Landsberg, a young political operative who has worked on several local campaigns, and whose father is Jewish and mother is Cuban, was disturbed by the “communism is Judaism” and other anti-Semitic graffiti – and frustrated no one denounced it.

“That there’s no conversation that long after the Holocaust antisemitism is alive in a city with one of the largest Jewish populations is disappointing,” said Landsberg, 23. “The graffiti is just the latest thing. I’ve been repeating for the last few years that antisemitism is not just alive but on the rise.” …

Perez and Soibel emphasize that they do not believe most of Miami’s Hispanics are antisemitic. But because Hispanics, and Cubans in particular, dominate politics in Miami-Dade and are so influential in Florida, and in U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, a shift in attitude towards Jews here has the potential for much wider influence.

Police kill Florida, USA black teenagers

This 30 November 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

Police Officer Fatally Shoots Two Black Teens

There’s more injustice happening in America. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks.

How wood storks survive

This February 2015 video from the USA says about itself:

Wood Storks using Grope Feeding and Tactolocation strategies at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Titusville, Florida. Filmed with Leica V-Lux (TYP 114) on 23 January 2015. © Bill Schmoker, Leica Birding Team.

From Florida Atlantic University in the USA:

Hot dogs, chicken wings and city living helped wetland wood storks thrive

Study of wetland birds finds city storks fared better than their non-urban counterparts in suboptimal natural conditions

August 31, 2020

Summary: Using the Wood Stork, researchers compared city storks with natural wetland storks to gauge their success in urban environments based on their diet and food opportunities. Results provide evidence of how a wetland species persists and even thrives in an urban environment by switching to human foods like chicken wings and hots dogs when natural marshes are in bad shape. These findings indicate that urban areas can buffer a species from the unpredictability of natural food sources.

Natural wetlands continue to disappear due to city and human development and are being replaced with humanmade swales, ponds and canals. This degradation and replacement of natural wetlands suggest that urban areas may be imperative to wetland species, especially when natural conditions are unpredictable. Wetland birds are often seen in and around cities; however, they have been largely ignored in urban wildlife studies. In their historic ranges, wetland birds inhabit dynamic marshes, traveling long distances to locate food. Yet, does their ability to forage for food in natural environments translate to their ability to do so in an urban environment?

Using the Wood Stork (Mycteria americana), a large American wading bird found throughout southeastern swamps and wetlands, scientists from Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science compared city storks with natural wetland storks to gauge their success in urban environments based on their diet and food opportunities.

Results of the study, published in Scientific Reports, provide evidence and a systematic understanding of how a wetland species persists and even thrives in an urban environment, by switching to human foods like chicken wings and hot dogs when natural marshes are in bad shape.

For the study, researchers sampled 160 nests during the 2015-2017 nesting seasons. Of the 160 sampled nests, 106 nests were in three urban colonies and 54 nests were in two natural wetland colonies in South Florida where a vast freshwater wetland, the Everglades, is located adjacent to a large urban area. They compared urban and natural wetland storks’ productivity, body condition, reproductive performance, breadth of diet, and tested whether stork diets changed during suboptimal natural wetland conditions.

They found that storks were able to exploit urban areas when natural food resources were scarce. This ability to switch between habitats and thus resources allowed for better reproductive performance during periods of low natural food availability. Furthermore, body condition did not differ significantly between urban and natural wetland nesting birds during either optimal or suboptimal conditions, suggesting that supplemental environmental resources do not negatively impact body condition. These findings indicate that urban areas can buffer a species from the unpredictability of natural food resources.

“During suboptimal conditions, urban birds expanded their diets to include more prey types, including anthropogenic food, suggesting that urban birds were able to exploit urban areas during low natural wetland prey availability,” said Betsy A. Evans, Ph.D., a natural resources specialist with the United States Army Corps of Engineers and lead author, who conducted the study as a graduate student in FAU’s Department of Biological Sciences with co-author Dale E. Gawlik, Ph.D., a professor in biology and FAU’s Environmental Science Program. “The ability of urban birds to switch their diet to include different prey types such as human-provided food that included chicken wings and hot dogs likely allowed them to produce more chicks during poor natural wetland prey availability conditions than their non-urban counterparts.”

Evans and Gawlik discovered that not only were urban storks able to access human-provided food such as trash, but they also increased the proportion of amphibians such as frogs in their diet when natural wetland conditions were suboptimal. Larval frogs (tadpoles) occur in a wide range of wetland types in the study region; however, they were 10 times more abundant in roadside created wetlands such as swales, ponds and canals than in natural wetlands during the time-period of this study. This suggests that storks may also have been accessing created wetlands along roadways during suboptimal natural wetland conditions.

“Behavioral flexibility and the ability to travel long distances and exploit resources in dynamic systems may give wetland birds an ecological advantage in urban environments,” said Gawlik. “Our findings demonstrated that urban storks expanded their diets during times of low natural wetland prey availability to include resources commonly found in urban areas, partially dampening the natural wetland food limitation on wading bird populations. Natural wetland birds, however, paid a greater reproductive penalty during suboptimal conditions than their urban counterparts. Furthermore, this ability to switch diets between resource pulses may reduce population fluctuations and lower the risk of extinction.”

The study demonstrates that urban environments may support biodiversity in a variety of ways. To mitigate potential threats from urbanization it will be important to understand how species exploit new resources as well as how they are affected by loss of resources from human activities.

For the study, the researchers visited two natural wetland colonies and three urban colonies one to two times per week during the 2015-2017 breeding seasons (approximately March through June). They selected these study colonies based on their range of hydrological conditions and history of repeated use by nesting storks. They describe colony landscape type broadly as either “urban” or “natural wetland” with natural wetland colonies occurring within Everglades National Park and urban colonies occurring within the urban east coast corridor of South Florida. At each colony location, they marked individual nests from which they collected productivity, body condition, and diet information.

This research was partially supported by the Florida Department of Transportation (BDV27-922-02).

Sharks and rays of Florida, USA

This 29 July 2020 video says about itself:

For the third straight year, we have had the privilege of filming giant hammerhead sharks hunting blacktip sharks off the beaches in Florida. The average size of a blacktip shark is 6ft in length, with an estimated weight of around 80lbs. The hammerhead sharks are much larger, measuring over 14ft in length and weighing well over 1000lbs. We filmed some incredible footage with our drone of giant hammerhead sharks hunting and eating blacktip sharks within the beach’s swimming distance.

From Florida Atlantic University in the USA:

Scientists catalogue shark and ray distribution in Florida lagoon

August 25, 2020

Summary: A study is the first long-term, in-depth analysis of the elasmobranch community in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon and develops capacity to understand how these species may respond to further environmental changes. From 2016 to 2018, researchers caught 630 individuals of 16 species, including two critically endangered smalltooth sawfish. Results showed that many elasmobranchs use the southern Indian River Lagoon throughout their life histories and the area may serve as an important nursery habitat for multiple species.

Many elasmobranch species, which include sharks, skates, and rays, use estuaries as nurseries, for birthing, and as foraging grounds. Florida’s Indian River Lagoon is one of 28 estuaries designated as an “estuary of national significance” by the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Estuary Program. In recent decades, this estuary has experienced many environmental impacts, such as habitat degradation and harmful algal blooms resulting in degraded water quality and fish kills. Currently, there is a substantial data gap surrounding the status of elasmobranchs in this estuary system.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute conducted a fishery-independent survey to characterize the elasmobranch community and understand distribution patterns and habitat use in the Indian River Lagoon from Sebastian to St. Lucie Inlet. This study provides the first long-term, in-depth analysis of the elasmobranch community in the southern Indian River Lagoon and develops capacity to understand how these species may respond to further environmental changes.

Results of the study, published in Estuaries and Coasts, the journal of the Coastal and Estuarine Research Foundation, showed that many elasmobranchs use the southern Indian River Lagoon throughout their life histories and the area may serve as an important nursery habitat for multiple species.

From 2016 to 2018, researchers caught 630 individuals of 16 species, including two critically endangered smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata). They characterized the species composition and distribution of elasmobranchs, examined spatial and temporal variability in the elasmobranch community, and assessed how temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, depth, water clarity, distance to an inlet, and distance to a freshwater source affect elasmobranch community composition. The two most commonly caught species were bull sharks and Atlantic stingrays, the only two species to each comprise greater than 20 percent of the catch. The remaining 14 species comprised 53 percent of the catch.

Researchers also observed size and compositional differences by region and season; for example, bull sharks were most abundant in Vero Beach and the St. Lucie River, and both bull sharks and Atlantic stingrays were more abundant in the fall than in the spring and summer. Clearer, relatively deeper, and higher salinity waters farther from freshwater sources and closer to inlets resulted in a more diverse community; while bull sharks and Atlantic stingrays dominated shallower, less clear waters closer to freshwater sources and further from inlets.

“As global human populations increase and environmental pressures on estuaries become more widespread, it is essential to continue to monitor changes in elasmobranch communities in order to effectively manage and conserve these populations,” said Grace Roskar, M.S., lead author, current Knauss Fellow with NOAA Fisheries and former graduate student working with Matt Ajemian, Ph.D., co-author and an assistant research professor at FAU’s Harbor Branch. “Establishing updated records of the diversity and distribution of elasmobranchs in the Indian River Lagoon is a critical first step to understand how varying environmental and pollution impacts may affect these species, which are integral to the fish community of the lagoon and surrounding habitats.”

The interconnected nature of abiotic parameters such as distance to freshwater sources or inlets and salinity that influenced elasmobranch distributions suggest important implications for future hydrological changes in the Indian River Lagoon.

“If freshwater discharges into the Indian River Lagoon increase in duration and/or volume, the elasmobranch community could shift even further to bull shark and Atlantic stingray dominance. Less tolerant species may be driven closer to the inlets or even out of the estuary to nearshore ocean habitats,” said Ajemian. “These community shifts could result in both decreased elasmobranch diversity and biodiversity of the estuary as a whole, possibly altering the dynamics of prey populations as well. Moreover, displaced species may face increased risks of predation or competition as well as declines in habitat quality or prey availability.”

The researchers emphasize the importance of continuing the survey for additional years to yield greater sample sizes and allow for the formulation of standardized relative abundance indices that will be useful in the stock assessment process, which is essential to fisheries management.

Whitespotted eagle rays’ behavior, new research

This 26 October 2018 video from the USA says about itself:

Off the coast of Sarasota, Florida, lives the spotted eagle ray—a beautiful, yet mysterious, sea creature. Very little is known about the eagle ray, so research teams from Florida Atlantic University and Mote Marine Lab are pioneering new techniques to better understand them. Along with tagging the rays to track their movements, the team records and analyzes the sounds the rays make when they eat. These new research methods could shed light on the rays’ eating habits and give researchers a deeper understanding of the animal, and, by extension, the ocean as a whole.

Join wildlife biologist Wes Larson on a mission across the United States to find the next generation of conservationists.

From Florida Atlantic University in the USA:

Biotelemetry provides unique glimpse into whitespotted eagle rays’ behavior

Ecology of this ‘near threatened’ species in Florida

July 22, 2020

Summary: Researchers are the first to characterize the ecology and fine-scale habitat use of ‘near threatened’ white-spotted eagle rays in Florida while also identifying areas of potential interactions between this species and multiple environmental threats. Biotelemetry provided unique insights into this species’ occupancy, which is not apparent at the landscape-scale. Prolonged observations showed affinities for habitats of considerable recreational and commercial importance, like inlets, channels, and clam aquaculture lease sites close to shore.

The whitespotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari), found in estuaries and lagoons throughout Florida, is listed as “near threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s “Red List of Threatened Species.” Keeping tabs on this highly mobile species for conservation efforts can be extremely challenging, especially for extended periods of time.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute used uniquely coded transmitters and acoustic telemetry to give them a leading edge to unravel fine-scale movement, behavior, and habitat use of whitespotted eagle rays in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon. Biotelemetry provided the researchers with unique insights into this species’ occupancy, which is not apparent at the landscape-scale.

Despite being a state-protected species in Florida for more than two decades, this study is the first to characterize the ecology and fine-scale habitat use of whitespotted rays in Florida while also identifying areas of potential interactions between this species and multiple environmental threats. For the study, researchers followed seven mature individuals (six males and one female) and individually tracked them for a total of 119.6 hours. They used a tracking vessel to continuously and manually track the rays between June 2017 and August 2018.

Results of the study, published in the journal Endangered Species Research, show that rays use the deeper portions of the Indian River Lagoon, along Florida’s southeast coast, during the day and shallower portions during the night. In addition, they move faster while in the ocean and lagoonal habitats and slower in channels and inlets. This information suggests that whitespotted eagle rays may spend more time foraging at night in the shallow water of the lagoon than during the daytime. These prolonged observations revealed affinities for habitats of considerable recreational and commercial importance, such as inlets, channels, and clam aquaculture lease sites close to shore.

“Understanding channel use is crucial to evaluating risks and potentially developing strategies to mitigate negative impacts to the whitespotted eagle ray, as both channel and inlet habitats have high levels of human activity such as boating and fishing and are prone to coastal development impacts from dredging,” said Breanna DeGroot, M.S., lead author, research technician and former graduate student working with Matt Ajemian, Ph.D., co-author and an assistant research professor at FAU’s Harbor Branch. “In addition, these high traffic areas experience increased noise and chemical pollution.”

Rays also spent a larger proportion of time in the channels and inlet during the lighter and warmer portions of the day and used shallower depths during the cooler and darker portions of the day. Rate of movement significantly increased with temperature, suggesting that rays are more active during warmer periods. While previous studies have found that whitespotted eagle rays are influenced by tidal cycles, this study did not find any tidal patterns in ray habitat use or distribution.

Because more clammers work on lease sites during the day, interactions between the rays and growout sites may therefore be underestimated. Findings from this study will help to inform statewide conservation plans for the species and provide critical information to hard clam aquaculture farmers and restoration managers for the successful production of bivalves in the area.

“As coastal populations and development increase, there is more potential for whitespotted eagle rays to interact with human activities,” said Ajemian. “In addition, intense coastal development such as dredging, construction, and pollution have been linked to habitat alteration, which may change the abundance and distribution of this species as has been documented with shark species in degraded habitats.”

As whitespotted eagle rays already display an affinity for these modified habitats, increased interactions with humans and added pollution and/or disturbances could result in changes to the species’ movement patterns and health. Ultimately, such human-induced habitat alterations could reduce the overall productivity of estuarine areas and, with time, exacerbate pressures already facing populations of aetobatid rays.

Florida COVID-19 denialist mother kills teenage daughter

This 6 July 2020 video about the USA says about itself:

Florida Teen Carsyn Davis Passes Away After QANON Mom Takes her to a COVID Party

QANON is an extreme right conspiracy theory.

Earlier today, outlets like Raw Story reported on the story of 16-year-old Carsyn Leigh Davis, who passed away after her mom took her to a church COVID party where there were 100 children without masks. Her mother Carole Brunton Davis then gave her medicines which were unprescribed by a doctor based on theories from Donald Trump and QANON. She also failed to allow her daughter access to a ventilator.

The church was apparently First Assembly of God Fort Myers.

A Pentecostalist fundamentalist church.

As a result of this, this young woman who was a cancer survivor was needlessly taken away. This is why we call out anti-science anti-mask Karens, and the damage they do, including to the children they are supposed to love and protect

Florida bars, restaurants close week after reopening

This photo shows workers protesting against premature reopening of the Tesla factory, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, in California, USA. Which endangers workers with COVID-19 infection.

Premature reopening for money costs health, lives (and, ultimately money).

New York Governor Cuomo considering a quarantine on travelers from Florida as coronavirus cases rise: here.

Repeating Islands

Gino Spocchia (Independent) reports on businesses in Florida that have needed to shut down again as the state’s second coronavirus wave hits.

Three months after the Covid-19 pandemic forced bars and restaurants to close in Florida, some businesses have shut within one week of reopening as coronavirus cases spike in the state. At least six bars in northern and central Florida have now announced their closures amid new Covid-19 cases, which peaked on Sunday.

The state’s health department has since confirmed two consecutive days with more than 2,000 new cases, breaking records set when the pandemic began in March.

That announcement came almost one week on from Florida’s second reopening phase permitting bars, cinemas and tattoo shops to welcome customers with some restrictions, as mandated under governor Ron DeSantis’ reopening plan.

Still, increased Covid-19 transmission in Florida has forced some businesses to shut down. A…

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Florida, USA green turtles’ health research

This July 2016 video from the USA says about itself:

Baby Sea Turtles Hatching at the Beach in Jupiter, Florida

It was around 8pm when they hatched and they all made it to the ocean!

From Florida Atlantic University in the USA:

World’s most complete health analysis of nesting sea turtles conducted in Florida

Study provides critical data for sea turtle conservation and population recovery

June 16, 2020

Summary: The most comprehensive health assessment for a green turtle rookery in the world to date is providing critical insights into various aspects of physiology, biology, and herpesvirus epidemiology of this nesting population. Findings are hopeful for this population of green sea turtles in southeastern Florida, offer important data on the profile of health for future comparative investigations, and suggest that viruses are endemically stable in this nesting population.

While it’s only about a 10-kilometer stretch, Juno Beach is home to one of the largest aggregations of nesting green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) in Florida and is one of the highest-density nesting beaches in the state. Although this high-profile turtle population has routinely been monitored for nest counts since 1989, an in-depth health assessment of these turtles has never been conducted.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and Loggerhead Marinelife Center have conducted the most comprehensive health assessment for a green turtle rookery in the world to date. Findings from the study provide critical insights into various aspects of physiology, biology, and herpesvirus epidemiology of this nesting population and are especially timely as the world observes “Sea Turtle Day.”

Results, recently published in the journal Endangered Species Research, are hopeful for this population of green sea turtles in southeastern Florida and offer important data on the profile of health for future comparative investigations.

“Effective conservation measures cannot take place unless the animals we are trying to protect are healthy,” said Annie Page-Karjian, D.V.M., Ph.D., lead author, assistant research professor and clinical veterinarian at FAU’s Harbor Branch. “Chronological and longitudinal studies of biology, physiology, and overall health in both free-ranging and captive populations are critical for supporting large-scale efforts to promote sea turtle population recovery.”

A total of 4,343 green turtle nests were documented on Juno Beach in 2017, which was the busiest nesting year on record for this beach. For the study, researchers collected blood samples from 60 female green turtles that nested on Juno Beach in 2017. They evaluated a broad suite of biological and health data, including measures of reproductive success, morphometrics, hematology, plasma chemistry, plasma protein fractions, haptoglobin, corticosterone, and measures of oxidative stress, antioxidative capacity, and innate immunity. They also tested for two herpesviruses of green turtles, ChHV5 and ChHV6, which are implicated in fibro-papillomatosis (FP) and respiratory and skin disease, respectively. FP is a debilitating disease of sea turtles characterized by neoplastic growths on the skin, shell, and/or internal organs.

Results showed that all 60 turtles included in the study were in good body condition with no external FP tumors. Five of the 60 turtles (8 percent) tested positive for ChHV5 and all turtles were negative for ChHV6. Of the 41 turtles tested for antibodies to ChHV5 and ChHV6, 29 percent and 15 percent tested positive, respectively, and 10 percent tested positive for antibodies to both viruses. Notably, there were no statistically significant differences between health variables for nesting turtles that tested positive for ChHV5 DNA versus those that tested negative; and also no differences between turtles that tested positive for ChHV5 or ChHV6 antibodies and those that did not. Findings from the study suggest that these viruses are endemically stable in Florida’s adult green sea turtles.

Researchers differentiated between previous viral infection versus recent infection/reactivation, and evaluated the results alongside health analytes to understand whether either infection state was associated with detectable physiological changes.

“The fitness of the turtles examined for this study is likely representative of the health of the ecosystems in which they forage and the oceanic corridors through which they migrate,” said Page-Karjian. “As human activities continue to affect sea turtle population recovery, these comprehensive baseline data from our study will provide a valuable resource for evaluating the impacts of various stressors such as habitat degradation on the population over time and will help inform wildlife and environmental policy management.”

Green turtles are the second most common sea turtle species to nest on the coast of Florida, after loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta). Sea turtles are considered to be sentinel species of environmental health, whereby sea turtle health is thought to reflect the health of the ecosystems they inhabit. Thus, examining sea turtle health is an important component of any coastal ecosystem health survey that includes sea turtle developmental, foraging, and/or nesting habitat(s).

Conservation threats to sea turtles in Florida are numerous, and include habitat encroachment and pollution, illegal harvesting, artificial beach lighting and coastal armoring, and human interactions such as entanglement, hook ingestion, and boat strike trauma. Diseases, including FP, also directly threaten sea turtle conservation.

Blacktip sharks fleeing from great hammerhead sharks

This 13 May 2020 video says about itself:

Can’t Touch This! Video Shows Blacktip Sharks Use Shallow Water to Flee Huge Predators

From Florida Atlantic University in the USA:

Can’t touch this! Video shows blacktip sharks use shallow water to flee huge predators

Aerial video provides first evidence of adult sharks using shallow water to escape the great hammerhead

May 13, 2020

Summary: Aerial drone footage provides the first evidence of adult blacktip sharks using shallow waters as a refuge from a huge predator — the great hammerhead. Before this study, documentation of adult sharks swimming in shallower waters to avoid predation did not exist. Unmanned aerial vehicles enable scientists to unobtrusively observe behaviors in the wild, providing insight into seldom-seen predator-prey interactions. When it comes to sharks, this ‘hammerhead’ time video proves you ‘can’t touch this.’

It’s “hammerhead” time according aerial drone footage of blacktip sharks fleeing to shallow waters when confronted by a huge predator along the coast of southeast Florida. Footage from the drone provides the first evidence of adult blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus) using shallow waters as a refuge from the great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran) — proving you “can’t touch this.”

Several juvenile shark species use shallow water nursery sites where the young can grow with a reduced risk of predation. However, prior to a study by Florida Atlantic University, no documentation was available to show that large adult sharks also swim in shallower waters to avoid predation.

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) enabled FAU scientists to unobtrusively observe and allow natural behaviors to be documented in the wild, providing insight into seldom-seen predator-prey interactions. Results of the study are published in the Journal of Fish Biology.

The blacktip shark is both an agile predator of teleost fishes, cephalopods and crustaceans and a prey for larger sharks, such as the great hammerhead, which can get as big as 18 feet long. Despite their large size, hammerheads are often found in relatively shallow waters that are likely an important area for their feeding. Their prey typically includes stingrays, bony fishes and other sharks, so it is no surprise that they have been spotted in and around the blacktip shark aggregations, which provide an abundance of possible prey.

On three separate occasions, a UAV recorded footage of a hammerhead shark approaching an aggregation of blacktip sharks in the nearshore waters of Palm Beach County. The average length of the blacktips captured in the area is under 6 feet, which the researchers used to calibrate the scale in the video footage to estimate the distance from shore for these interactions. Based on this estimate, all videos were recorded less than 150 feet offshore of the beach, in water no more than waist-deep.

In all three events, blacktip sharks used the shallow waters close to shore as a refuge from a great hammerhead. The hammerhead sharks in the videos were at least twice the size of the blacktip sharks making them approximately 12 feet long. The three separate videos were recorded during the day on Feb. 28, 2018, Feb. 28, 2019 and March 3, 2019.

“In two of the three videos, the hammerhead shark actively chased one or more blacktips toward the shore but was unsuccessful at capturing its prey,” said Stephen Kajiura, Ph.D., senior author, a professor of biological sciences and director of the Elasmobranch Laboratory in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. Kajiura co-authored the paper with his undergraduate student and lead author, Melanie D. Doan. “The chases ended with the hammerhead making a sharp turn away from its intended prey and the shore, back into deeper waters. The chasing events showed the hammerhead struggling as it experienced difficulty following the blacktips into the shallow waters.”

Hammerheads are known to possess an exceptionally tall first dorsal fin, longer than their pectoral fins. Their large dorsal fin is proposed to generate lift when swimming on their side, instead of facilitating propulsion and precise turning, as seen in every other observed shark species. The caudal fin thrusts and propels the shark forward, but both the dorsal fin and upper lobe of the caudal fin are seen breaching the surface in each of the videos in the study.

“When the dorsal and caudal fins of hammerhead breach the surface, they are neither generating lift, providing thrust, nor helping to facilitate turning as efficiently as when they are completely submerged,” said Kajiura. “The shallow water thus constrains the locomotion of the hammerhead, which provides the blacktip shark with a functional refuge because their smaller size allows them to continue to swim and maneuver effectively away from their larger predator.”

Some of the footage analyzed in this study was generously provided by a local citizen scientist and filmmaker, Joshua Jorgensen. The increasing popularity of UAVs will likely lead to additional fortuitous observations that can further inform the understanding of behaviors that are difficult to observe or have been previously undocumented.

“The predictable seasonal occurrence of large numbers of blacktip sharks in clear, shallow waters close to the beach in Palm Beach County, Florida, provides an excellent opportunity to employ unmanned aerial vehicles to quantitatively explore the collective behaviors and swimming kinematics of large sharks during natural predator-prey interactions,” said Kajiura.

Funding for this study was provided by the Colgan Foundation.

Coronavirus testing of homeless, criminal in Florida?

This 15 April 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

“I Want an Apology”: Black Doctor Who Tests Homeless for Coronavirus Handcuffed by Miami Police

We speak with Dr. Armen Henderson, an African-American doctor who was handcuffed and detained outside his home Friday as he was wearing a mask and preparing for a volunteer shift to test homeless people for COVID-19.

“I want the officer held accountable. There’s no way that you racially profile me and then you arrest me, detain me, during a pandemic, when you have no mask on, where hundreds of police officers throughout Miami-Dade County have tested positive,” says Dr. Henderson, who is an internal medicine physician, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Miami and an organizer with Dream Defenders.

Black Lives Matter. Unless they’re homeless.