Louis Bacon charity funds vital shark conservation in The Bahamas Shark Sanctuary

A charity set up by philanthropist Louis Bacon has donated to crucial research into one the world’s largest shark habitats in the Bahamas.

The Moore Bahamas Foundation, established by Louis Bacon, has generously funded an expedition be led by Dr. Demian Chapman and graduate student Mark Bond, from Stony Brook University.

The research expedition will try to identify areas of high juvenile shark populations in order to map out potential breeding and nursery habitats for sharks in the Bahamas.

The research, carried out by the Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the Cape Eleuthera Institute, will be conducted in a 6-week research cruise of The Bahamas Shark Sanctuary from May 7-June 15, 2013.

The Bahamas islands exist in a diverse eco-system where subtropical open ocean meets coral reefs with seagrass beds lined by rich mangrove forests.

The expeditions will also track the movements of the shark populations to determine how fishing habits of neighbouring countries affect the numbers of sharks in the Bahamas Sanctuary.

Staff from Microwave Telemetry Inc. will attempt to attach archival tags to any endangered oceanic whitetip sharks they find, to learn about their migration routes to mating and breeding grounds; while researchers from the University of Florida and University of North Florida will join the expedition to study their fine-scale hunting behaviour and reproductive biology.

The movements of critically endangered smalltooth sawfish will be tracked by researchers from the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service to discover if the species breeds in The Bahamas.

The research team also hope to determine the movements of the endangered great hammerhead sharks providing a comprehensive profile of each species movements and habitual behaviour in the Bahamas area and underlining the importance of the shark in the local environment.

Philanthropist and successful hedge fund manager Louis Bacon founded The Moore Foundation in 1992 and thus far has funded dozens of conservation and research projects for over 20 years.

The foundation supports organizations that have protected and preserved thousands of acres of environmentally sensitive lands and water bodies.