Galapagos or Dusky sharks are a pivotal species in Bermuda waters, and yet not much is known about them.American Corey Eddy wants to change that.The PhD student at the University of Massachusetts School of Marine Science is now here studying sharks and tonight will give a lecture on his research at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.“I spent a semester with the Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences in 2006, when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Rhode Island,” he said. “It was at that time that I decided I wanted to learn more about Galapagos sharks around Bermuda. Right now I am here independently and this is my own project. Next month however, I will be at BIOS until December.”Galapagos sharks are described as near-threatened because they are overfished heavily throughout the world and they are very slow to reproduce.“Near-threatened means they expect it to be considered threatened shortly,” said Mr Eddy. “In other parts of the world, especially in Australia, they are considered data-deficient. They just don’t have enough information. That is sort of how it is, in my opinion, locally, because we don’t know how many there are.“There are quite a few sharks in Bermuda waters, far more than anyone would expect. I don’t know the numbers specifically. That is one thing I am trying to find out. I think about 200 are landed annually by fishermen usually small ones so I would imagine there are hundreds living around Bermuda.”If that scares you consider the following. Dogs, hippos, deer and falling vending machines killed more people than sharks last year.Meanwhile, sharks killed 17 people in the world, compared to the 100,000 sharks slaughtered by people. In the last 100 years there are only two known shark attacks in Bermuda waters, species unknown.“Most of what we see around Bermuda are the small ones,” said Mr Eddy. “They can be quite large but not inshore. The large ones are usually found well offshore especially around the banks. I do a few different things. Sometimes I go out with the local fishermen. I have my own gear called a shark line which has about 15 hooks.“I try to catch the sharks and tag them and I will take a clip from their fin and a blood sample for the project. At times when some of the local fishermen catch one to sell they will call me and I will meet them for a proper dissection so I can get more robust samples of muscle and vertebrae, stuff that you could really only get from a dead shark. On my own efforts it is primarily tagging. I can get what I need done that way without having to kill anything.”He is trying to learn more about Galapagos shark population numbers, habits and genetics.“I am trying to confirm their identity with genetics, because there is confusion between the Galapagos shark and the Dusky shark,” he said. “Dusky sharks tend to be found more off the coast of continents like North America and South America whereas Galapagos sharks like islands and seamounts. There are some very minor physical differences. There is some thought that they might actually be the same species of shark.”Mr Eddy said it is still far too early to make any conclusions, but so far the evidence seems to be pointing to the fact that Duskys and Galapagos sharks are the same.Sharks are important to the marine ecosystem because they are a keystone species that holds everything together.“If you take out the large predators you will have these large effects,” said Mr Eddy. “It is like taking a link out of a chain as well. Anytime someone brings in a big shark in Bermuda the newspapers print pictures. There was a large tiger shark brought in and there were photos in the newspaper of children sitting on it, and people celebrating. Sharks are definitely still vilified. It is going to take a lot of work to turn that opinion around considering the value they play in the eco system.”He said from previous studies he has done in Hawaii and from what he has seen in Bermuda, sharks mainly eat reef fish such as pudding wives or squirrel fish. He thought the larger offshore sharks might eat mackerel and ocean robbins.The largest Galapagos shark was recorded at 20ft; those around Bermuda are generally around 8ft.“We get a lot of baby sharks here so you can assume that the big pregnant females are here too,” he said. “A pregnant female would be 8ft or longer. I don’t know if we get the biggest of the big but we do get some large ones.”Mr Eddy first became interested in sharks as a five-year-old. His older brother was obsessed with them and he wanted to be just like him. When his brother lost interest, his own fascination remained.“It wasn’t until I was actually at work in construction in Boston and just reading a lot of things about marine ecology fishing and sharks it occurred to me suddenly that you could actually make a career with shark science,” he said. “From that point on I decided to go back to school and study sharks all the way. In my opinion it is a pretty good cause because they are a fascinating animal and they need to be demystified and devilnised. It is a worthwhile cause as far as science and conservation goes.”So far, he said he has never been bitten by a shark although he has suffered what is known as “shark burn”.“If you run your hand down a shark in one direction it is smooth and if you run your hand in the other direction it is like sandpaper. When you are handling them and they wrap around you often get shark burn. It is like being scraped with sandpaper or cement.”Mr Eddy hopes to work in education, possibly at the university level, once he gets his PhD.Shark displays and lectures are currently on at BUEI as part of Shark Week. Mr Eddy has spoken to campers at the BUEI about sharks and will also be manning an information booth there for the next three Saturdays.Doors open at 6.30pm for the 7pm lecture. Tickets are $15 for members and $20 for non-members.