Gulf Shores High Teacher Tags Sharks During 16 Days on NOAA Shark Survey

GULF SHORES, Ala. — For 16 days in September, Gulf Shores High School science teacher Krista Fleming traded her classroom for the deck of a federal research ship, baiting hooks, measuring sharks and collecting data as part of a NOAA shark survey in the western Gulf of America.

Fleming, who teaches environmental science and marine biology at the school, was selected for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Teacher at Sea program, which places educators alongside scientists on real research expeditions. She sailed aboard NOAA Ship Oregon II on a bottom longline survey of sharks and snappers along the coasts of Texas and Louisiana.

From Pascagoula to the Texas coast

Fleming departed Pascagoula, Mississippi, the ship’s home port, on Saturday, Sept. 5. Her trip was the third leg of NOAA’s annual shark and red snapper bottom longline survey, which ran Sept. 5-20, according to the logs she kept on NOAA’s Teacher at Sea blog. The ship spent about two days in transit to the area off Brownsville, Texas, before sampling began.

Throughout the voyage, Fleming worked daily alongside scientists, collecting data on shark and snapper populations. She worked the day shift, from noon to midnight, according to her blog.

In her own words, the experience reshaped how she thinks about teaching ocean science.

“Through my NOAA experience, I’m excited to bring real research at sea directly into my classroom so students can explore authentic data and investigations in our oceans,” Fleming said. “By sharing my hands-on experiences and discoveries aboard the research vessel, I will help students see how science works in the real world and inspire their curiosity about marine research and environmental problem-solving.”

How the survey works

NOAA has conducted the bottom longline survey aboard the Oregon II since 1995, using standardized methods so data can be compared from year to year. The survey is run in several legs each year and supports research by NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center.

Fleming described the process in her blog posts. At each sampling station, the crew sets a bottom longline carrying 100 baited hooks, with buoys called high flyers marking each end of the line. The line soaks on the bottom for one hour. Scientists record when each hook goes into and comes out of the water, along with GPS coordinates and whatever is caught.

Sharks brought aboard are measured several ways, including pre-caudal, fork, natural total and stretched total length, and a small fin clip is taken for genetic studies. Many are tagged and released.

The crew also deploys an instrument package known as a CTD, which measures conductivity, or salinity, along with temperature and depth. Fleming wrote that the instruments aboard also record dissolved oxygen, phytoplankton levels, water clarity and other conditions, and that a camera attached to the package photographs the seafloor to help determine whether the bottom is mostly mud or sand.

Sharks, tags and snapper

Over the course of the leg, Fleming reported encountering a wide range of shark species, including blacknose, Atlantic sharpnose, tiger, scalloped hammerhead, sandbar, spinner, silky, Cuban dogfish, night, blacktip, bull and Gulf smoothhound sharks. On one haul, she wrote, the team collected data on 18 red snapper and 21 sharks.

Under the guidance of the scientists aboard, Fleming tagged a spinner shark measuring 6 feet, 8 inches. She described several kinds of tags used in the survey:

• Internal anchor tags inserted under the skin through a small incision.
• External tags that stay visible and carry a reward message and phone number, so anglers who catch a tagged shark can report it.
• Acoustic tags surgically implanted in the abdomen, which send signals picked up by receivers across the Gulf.

She also helped remove otoliths, the small bony structures in a fish’s inner ear that grow in rings much like a tree. Counting those rings reveals a fish’s age, which in turn helps scientists understand growth rates, maturity, lifespan and the age structure of a population. That information feeds into the Southeast Data, Assessment and Review process, known as SEDAR, which combines survey, fishery and biological data to guide management of species such as red snapper.

For Gulf Coast communities like Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, where red snapper fishing is a major draw for charter boats and private anglers, that kind of data matters. Population assessments built on surveys like this one help shape the seasons and limits that govern the fishery.

Life aboard the Oregon II

The Oregon II is a 170-foot fisheries research vessel operated by NOAA and based in Pascagoula. It was built at the Ingalls shipyard there and conducts fisheries, plankton and marine mammal surveys in the Gulf, the Atlantic and the Caribbean. The shark and red snapper survey is its signature annual project.

Fleming’s blog introduced readers to the people who make the work possible, from the field party chief, a NOAA research fishery biologist with about three decades of shark research experience, to the NOAA Corps officers who drive the ship, the engineers who keep it running and the deck crew who handle the longline and the cradle used to bring large sharks aboard safely. She also toured the engine room and the bridge, learning how the ship turns seawater into drinking water and how NOAA Corps officers navigate and plan voyages.

Weather was part of the experience, too. On at least one day, she wrote, operations were suspended with winds near 21 knots and 4-foot seas.

A program with a long track record

NOAA’s Teacher at Sea program has been sending educators to sea since 1990, and more than 900 teachers have taken part. The program is open to teachers from kindergarten through the college level. Participants live and work alongside scientists, studying the marine environment firsthand, and return to their schools with deeper knowledge and new enthusiasm for ocean science.

Jennifer Hammond, director of the Teacher at Sea program, said the experience leaves a lasting mark on participants.

“NOAA’s Teacher at Sea Program gives teachers the professional opportunity of a lifetime with a chance to participate in cutting-edge science on the ocean, working side-by-side with world-renowned scientists,” Hammond said. “Teachers describe this authentic research experience as transformative and one that allows them to bring new knowledge and excitement back to their classrooms.”

Teachers typically document their voyages on the program’s public blog, giving students and families back home a way to follow along. Fleming’s posts covered everything from shark identification to fish printing, a traditional Japanese art form known as gyotaku that one crew member demonstrated using a red snapper.

Bringing the Gulf back to class

Fleming’s interest in field-based learning predates the voyage. Before departing, she wrote that she co-teaches a place-based science class with fellow Gulf Shores High teacher Dr. Caroline Hamilton that takes state science standards into the field, and that she co-leads one of Alabama’s sea turtle conservation teams. Gulf Shores City Schools lists her as a chair of its Science By The Shore committee, a district initiative that builds student scientists through coastal fieldwork.

In her final log, Fleming wrote that the trip strengthened her commitment to environmental education and that she plans to bring field stories and new ideas back to her students. Real survey data, tagging methods and the careers she saw on the ship, from fisheries biologist to NOAA Corps officer to marine engineer, give her students a concrete look at how ocean science is done.

About NOAA

NOAA’s mission includes understanding and predicting changes in Earth’s environment, from the deep ocean to the sun’s activity, and conserving and managing coastal and marine resources nationwide. The agency’s work ranges from weather forecasting through the National Weather Service to fisheries management, coastal mapping and ocean research.

That forecasting role has been front and center on the Alabama coast this week as Hurricane Isaias made landfall on Oct. 9, a reminder of how closely life in Gulf Shores is tied to the same waters Fleming spent September studying.

What is the Gulf of America?

Federal agencies, including NOAA, now refer to the body of water long known as the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, following a January 2025 executive order. The survey area Fleming worked in lies in the western part of the Gulf, off Texas and Louisiana.

For teachers interested in applying

Educators interested in following in Fleming’s footsteps can find information about eligibility and the application process through NOAA’s Teacher at Sea program, which publishes details on its website, teacheratsea.noaa.gov. Past participants’ blogs, including Fleming’s 2026 posts, are available on the program’s site and offer a look at what a voyage involves.