VT College of Science Magazine Annual 2014 | Page 11

Alumna’s Research Leads to International
Protection of Endangered Shark Species

F

or Lucy Howey-Jordan, a 2004 biology graduate,
every week is shark week. She credits Virginia
Tech with fostering her passion for wildlife conservation and introducing the foundation for a career
in shark research.
After graduating from Virginia Tech, Howey-Jordan attended Nova
Southeastern University in South Florida and received a master’s in
marine biology. She is the now the scientific liaison for Microwave
Telemetry Inc., where she helps scientists worldwide with development of research projects. She also conducts her own scientific
studies. Her primary focus has been to aid in the international protection of the oceanic whitetip shark, which is listed as critically
endangered in the Northwest Atlantic and vulnerable globally by
the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List, a
comprehensive list of the global conservation status of biological
species.
Referred to as “the most dangerous of all sharks” by 20th century
French conservationist Jacques Cousteau, oceanic whitetips remained untouched in the Atlantic as a subject of research until
Howey-Jordan and her team performed their remarkable and novel
study.
In 2010, with a group of international scientists, Howey-Jordan
launched a pilot study in the Bahamas using satellite-linked archival transmitters to track the movements of the shark, which has
suffered an estimated 90 percent decrease in population. The study
was published in the science journal PLoS ONE in February 2013
with Howey-Jordan as the lead author. (www.plosone.org/article/
info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0056588)
She and her team began their study of oceanic whitetips knowing
the shark population was in decline and that the species was poorly
studied in relation to other large open-ocean sharks. Partially because of the novelty of the research, its publication received widespread positive press coverage through traditional, mainstream
newspaper and online news sites.
As part of a larger effort to increase awareness of the shark’s decline
and have it listed as an endangered species, Howey-Jordan and her
colleagues purposely timed the publication date of their manuscript
to correspond with the 16th meeting of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna held in

www.science.vt.edu

by Katherine
Fairbanks

March 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand. The United States co-sponsored
a proposal with Brazil and Columbia to grant protection for oceanic
whitetip sharks using Howey-Jordan and her colleagues’ paper to
show trans-political migrations of this species as foundation for
their protection.
“After nearly two weeks of deliberation and opposition from countries such as China and Japan, the oceanic whitetip shark narrowly
received landmark protection under Appendix II (the enforcement
of strict trade regulations)
along with the porbeagle
shark, three species of hammerhead shark, and two species of manta rays,” she said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considered this success as
the “most significant advancement at the meeting,” especially considering the rejection
of proposals for other critically
endangered species, such as
polar bears and the American
crocodile.
Howey-Jordan and her colleagues continue their study of
the shark, having tagged more
than 60 individuals over the
past three seasons in an effort
to study their movement and
habitat use. Recent expansions
of the study include genetic
and reproduction components.

(Left) Howey-Jordan and her
team conduct an ultrasound on a
pregnant oceanic white tip. (Above)
Howey-Jordan tags a shark.

Currently, the group (composed of scientists at Stony Brook University and Cape Eleuthera Institute) also collaborates with researchers from the University of North Florida to analyze blood collected
from female oceanic whitetips for hormonal markers present during
pregnancy. Over the past two field seasons, the team conducted ultrasounds on many of the female sharks captured and confirmed
pregnancy in several. Tracking data from the confirmed gravid females could provide important insights into the protection, life history patterns, and sexually segregated migrations of the species.

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