Bimini Biological Field Station - Shark Lab

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Bimini Biological Field Station - Shark Lab

The BBFSF is a world-famous facility founded by shark biologist Dr. Samuel H. Gruber in 1990.

14/10/2026

Our crew cleaning up South Bimini Beaches!

Some recent storms brought trash with them to our beaches, so this week our crew headed out on the sand to collect as much trash from the beach and up into the tree line as we could.

It was a really successful clean up, 12 bags of trash alongside larger items were collected!

If you want to find ways to get involved in similar beach cleanups or simply ways to help out, head to Rock The Ocean 🌊 to find out more!

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📸: I S S Y , Wyatt Albert

13/10/2026

New Important Shark and Ray Area!

Honeymoon Harbour, a small island just 14km south of the Bimini Islands, has been designated as a new Important Shark and Ray Area (ISRA) for Southern Stingrays (Hypanus americanus) ! This ISRA falls under criterion C1 - Reproductive Areas, which designates areas important to mating, birthing, laying eggs, or providing refuge and other advantages to young.

Findings show mature female southern stingrays and small juveniles are the most common individuals found in the area, with many of the mature females being observed to be visibly pregnant or exhibiting fresh mating scars. It is suggested that the shallow, sandy habitat provides refuge for pregnant females and juveniles from larger bodied predators.

Honeymoon Harbour is also frequently used by other elasmobranch species including the vulnerable Atlantic Nurse Shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) and Blacktip Shark (Carcharhinus limbatus), and the endangered Blacknose Shark (Carcharhinus acronotus).
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📸: Tim Furst , Wyatt Albert
✍️: Tim Furst

12/10/2026

Leaving the mangroves!!

As juvenile Lemon Sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) get larger and older, they stray away from the safety of the mangroves and head towards the surrounding flats. This new area will also bring new prey items which will be larger, but will also bring in new and large predators as well.

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📸: Wyatt Albert

09/10/2026

Meet Shrub!

Shrub is a loving and playful little boy who is looking for his forever home! He enjoys spending time outside, playing catch with his favorite pink ball, and recently has been getting a lot more comfortable in the water! He’s a very quick learner and has already learned several commands and tricks! He’s a sweet boy who loves pats, cuddles, long walks and spending time with his favorite humans!

He is estimated to be around 6-9 months old with lots of growing, learning, and loving left to do! He has had his neuter, vaccines, and microchip so he is ready to start his next chapter. He’s great with older kids and friendly with other dogs. If you’re interested in more info or want to foster him, please contact IG Stray Dogs (& Cats!) of Bimini (https://www.instagram.com/straysofbimini/) or reach out to us via DM on Instagram!

Can’t commit to adopting right now? Consider fostering while we continue to search for a forever home! Please share to help get little Shrub more exposure!

08/10/2026

Celebrating World Octopus Day!

Bimini is home to several species of octopus, including this Caribbean Reef Octopus (Octopus briareus), the smaller Atlantic Long-armed Octopus (Macrotritopus defilippi), and the Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris).

Octopus are members of the family Mollusca which includes sea snails like the Queen conch (Aliger gigas) and many bivalves including clams and oysters. Unlike many of their mollusc counterparts, octopuses do not have an external shell nor an internal shell-like structure found in other cephalopods like cuttlefish and squid. Without any hard shell-like structure, octopuses are able to squeeze into super tight locations to escape larger predators.

In Bimini, octopuses can be seen roaming the reefs and seagrass beds, or hiding in rocky caves and sandy holes. So if you look hard enough while snorkelling, you may find something looking back at you!
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📸: Wyatt Albert
✍️: Tim Furst

07/10/2026

Publication Alert!

The Bahamas to East Florida Important Shark & Ray Area.

A new 26,891 km2 movement corridor from the north western Bahamas to the east coast of Florida serves as an important migratory habitat for Atlantic Nurse sharks. Using acoustic telemetry, researchers tracked migrating Atlantic Nurse sharks from Bimini to Florida across the Straits of Florida and Gulf Stream.

The sharks travelled between 100 - 500 km through pelagic waters as deep as 1800 m. This corridor potentially shows the seasonal migration to mating and pupping areas. The masters thesis of Baylie Fadool, Shark Lab alum, helped to designate this as an international movement corridor. A big congratulations to Baylie Baylie, for helping to put those Nurse sharks on the map!

This project represents the work of an extensive network of contributors, all recognised in the publication. To read about the full project and see all other contributors, please visit the paper https://doi.org/10.59216/ssg.isra.2026.r4.
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📸: Infographic: Ethan Prawdzik, Photos: Wyatt Albert
✍️: Caption: Ethan Prawdzik

05/10/2026

With the school year starting back up again, we wanted to highlight one of our virtual outreach programs called “Request A Speaker”!

This program is open to classrooms, clubs, and conferences around the world. Teachers or members of an organisation can request an individual from our team to give a virtual presentation on the history of the lab, shark diversity in Bimini and elsewhere, threats faced by sharks, and how students or others can become more involved in marine conservation. We can tailor the presentation or call to cover specific topics you might want us to discuss.

This is also a great way for us to spread awareness about marine conservation to those in landlocked communities who don’t have easy access to the ocean. Let us virtually come to you!

Visit our website at http://biminisharklab.com/speaker-request to learn more or fill out the Request A Speaker form!

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📸: BIMINI SHARK LAB, Siena McQuade
✍️: erin

03/10/2026

New Publication!

We are excited to highlight the contribution of The Bimini Shark Lab to the latest Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) project across the North American and Caribbean Atlantic region. Shark Lab president Dr. Matt Smukall represented the BBFSF and worked closely with the ISRA team to propose several areas for consideration. The Shark Lab data contributed to the designation of 3 new ISRAs and 5 new ISRA movement corridors across the region. These designations are the culmination of decades of work and hundreds of people that have supported the Shark Lab research. The masters thesis of Baylie Fadool, Shark Lab alum, helped to designate an international movement corridor between Bimini and Eastern Florida for Atlantic nurse sharks. The recent publication of Jasmine Nyce, also Shark Lab alumni, was used to designate a movement corridor of bull sharks.

The ISRA project represents an incredible collaborative effort with a total of 191 locations designated through the region, and 39 additional Areas of Interest identified. This work was supported by the contributions of more than 393 experts and collaborators from around the world, and the untold number of students, volunteers, and support staff that have assisted with the research projects.

In the coming weeks we will be highlighting the specific areas that Shark Lab data contributed to, along with the shark and ray species that make these areas particularly important. Stay tuned for these posts!

The information in this post was taken from the ISRA https://sharkrayareas.org/. This project represents the work of an extensive network of contributors, all recognised in the publication. To read about the full project and see all other contributors, please visit the paper https://doi.org/10.59216/ssg.isra.2026.r4.

Jabado RW, García-Rodríguez E, Rohner CA, Palacios MD, Bettcher Brito V, Kyne PM, Gonzalez-Pestana A, Charles R, Armstrong AO, Batlle-Morera A. 2026. North American and Caribbean Atlantic: A regional compendium of Important Shark and Ray Areas. Dubai: IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group

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01/10/2026

Vet clinic!

Last week we had a visiting vet clinic here at the lab! Dr Grant and his team visited from Caves Village Veterinary Hospital on Nassau to check up the cats and dogs of Bimini and carry out spay and neuters.

Some of our crew assisted with the clinic on the North island for two days and with the South clinic held here at the shark lab. A huge thank you to the team at Island Paws Rescue who help make this all possible and to all volunteers who helped to spread the word and assist on the day.

We currently have 1 dog looking for a foster home, little Shrub! (Slide 2) He is ~6 months old with a heart of gold. He has been living on the streets for most of his life and got his name because he was found in the shrubs. He is currently being temporarily fostered with us at the shark lab to get him off of the streets but is looking for a longer term foster home in the US as soon as possible. For more information please reach out to Stray Dogs (& Cats!) of Bimini or message us!

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28/09/2026

You’re going to want to see this one!

On our most recent research trip to the Florida Keys we picked up some serious action on our BRUV!

In comes a Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda) snapping up its lunch!

It’s not every day you capture behaviour like this on a BRUV, it definitely gave the crew analysing the footage plenty of excitement!

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📸: BIMINI SHARK LAB
✍️: I S S Y

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Website

http://www.biminisharklab.com/

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