News

:

,

Kids dissect sharks and skates for Dalhousie’s Shark Week

A group photo of 8 people, 6 children are wearing lab coats and touching sharks. A marine biologist is explaining sharks and has his hands on the table. This is in a classroom with many chairs and tables.
For Shark Week, Dalhousie University's Diversity of Nature initiative (Dr. Chris Mull, left, Aaron Judah, far- left) invited kids ages 5-14 to dissect sharks and skates at Halifax's Museum of Natural History. Photo by Sara Gouda.
Sara Gouda - CKDU - Halifax • NS | 24-08-2022
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on email
Share on print

Diversity of Nature, a BIPOC-led and BIPOC-focused science outreach by Dalhousie University, introduced Shark Week, a series of shark-themed events for children and adults to participate in to learn more about sharks, skates and rays at the Museum of Natural History.

Today at the event, kids ages five to 14 learned about various types of sharks and their anatomy in a short presentation by Dalhousie marine biology student Aaron Judah, and took part in dissections of sharks and skates for the first time. Safety goggles, lab coats, gloves, trays, and scalpels were provided to all participants, as well as safety rules and regulations before the dissection event.
Judah is a workshop leader at Diversity of Nature, who works on the roles that sharks play in the ecosystem.
Photo of a man holding a shark on the table. There are kids in labcoats and goggles watching in the background.

Aaron Judah shows kids how to properly dissect a shark. Photo by Sara Gouda.

"Today, we're going to introduce the kids to skates and sharks and dissect them. Skates are like rays—they are flat-body sharks," Judah said. "We've also brought on some research techniques and tools. We can show them how acoustic tags work, we have dive gear here, and we're going to show them some videos from baited remote underwater video systems."
Kids participated in a Q&A segment during the presentation, some of the topics covered discussed different species of sharks and skates and their anatomies; sharks native to Nova Scotia, their habits and whereabouts; and their role in our environment.
"Sharks provide a lot of important things to keep the oceans healthy, they move nutrients around the control prey populations when a shark sinks down to the deep sea and dies. All these deep-sea organisms come and feed on it, it produces energy for that ecosystem."

Judah said these seminars are important to engage youths and entice them to learn more about sharks, to become shark advocates in the future, or perhaps even marine biologists.

Dr. Chris Mull, Dalhousie postdoctoral research fellow from the department of biology, gathered the kids and began dissecting a small shark on the table, to show them the easiest method before they start cutting open the fish themselves.

Photo of two young brothers sitting at a table smiling. There is a scalpel and tray on the lab table.

Fairview Heights Elementary school brothers Hayven Joseph, 13 (left) and Hayden Joseph, 11 (right) participated in Shark Week. Photo by Sara Gouda.

Shark enthusiast Hayven Joseph,13,  from Fairview Heights Elementary, dissected a shark for the first time with his two brothers and said his favourite shark species are Mako sharks and Great Whites.

Jan Eddy brought her two grandkids and neighbors to partake in the event saying it is a good learning experience.

"We're very excited. We didn't know this was going on," said Jan. "So when I found out I thought 'oh, I have to have hands-on with this.' Dissecting things is great for them, I think the younger they start the better."

"My name is Teige, I'm 9. I've dissected a fake frog before, this is my first time dissecting a real thing," added Teige.

Shark Week will be concluding with two more events on Sat. Aug.27, at the Museum of Natural History.

A local shark panel, from 11:00 a.m. – 12 p.m. will cover conversations by local shark scientists working here and around the world.

Also, shark and whale interactive booths will be open to the public from 12:00 p.m. – 3 p.m. The set of booths are meant to help immerse students in understanding the important roles sharks and rays perform in our oceans.

Listen to the full interview below:

Download Audio