Shark Sightings
For Gajić, working with sharks is a dream come true. He grew up in the country of Yugoslavia. He never lived near the ocean. Yet, he was curious about the sea and what lived in it. He wanted to swim with sharks. Now he does!
Gajić knows that sharks are in trouble in the Adriatic. Plastics, chemicals, and other waste poison the sea. To know if animals are healthy, he has to study them in a lab.
smoothhound sharks
Gajić looks at a deep-water rough shark in the lab.
Under the Microscope
Gajić takes samples from already-dead sharks. The sharks come from fishers. Sometimes, a shark is accidentally caught in a fisher’s net and killed. When this happens, they bring them to Gajić.
In the lab, each shark is given an x-ray and a scan. Tissue samples are taken. From these, he can learn a lot. He can see if there is any disease. He looks at their hearts, livers, kidneys, and even brains.
This shark was caught in a fishing net.