Some local scientists are showing their work nationwide on a popular show.

Researchers from Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota are being featured on Discovery’s Shark Week.

Recently, Dr. Robert Hueter, Director of the Center for Shark Research and Mote and other scientists traveled to Cuba to study the shark population there.

The expedition allowed U.S. and Cuban scientists to place the first satellite transmitter tags on sharks in Cuban waters, conduct the first coral transplant experiment on a Cuban reef and more.

“For the first time we were able to put out satellite tags on sharks in Cuba,” said Hueter. “This is a technology we’ve been using here for 15 years, but has not been allowed by the Cuban government to be deployed in Cuban waters.” 

Fieldwork took place in February 2015 and the satellite transmitters generated data afterward.

“These instruments allow us to follow sharks tagged in Cuba and see where they go, and where their critical habits are” said Hueter. “We want to see if they come to the United States, which they believe they do, to prove the water in between us doesn’t divide us. It actually connects the United States with Cuba.”

The underwater action was all caught on camera and is being shown in Discovery’s “Tiburones: The Sharks of Cuba” at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, July 7.

Cuba and the United States host significant marine protected areas and have important natural resources that need further scientific study to support management and conservation.

However, Cuba, which has protected 20 percent of its coastal environment and has experienced slower coastal development than many other areas, stands out among the Gulf and Caribbean nations for its near-pristine ecosystems and wealth of unsolved scientific mysteries.

The Gulf and Caribbean ecoregion hosts about 20 percent of the world’s shark biodiversity, with Cuba at the epicenter, but scientists know relatively little about the status of shark populations in Cuban waters and what impacts they face from the nation’s fisheries.

Over the past 40 years, the abundance of many shark species worldwide has declined dramatically.

Researchers are trying to rebuild the shark populations. They said it benefits the ecosystem and local economies because sharks are essential to the fishing industry and to ecotourism and are critical for proper ecological balance of life in the sea.

Many of Cuba’s coral reefs have thrived even though most reefs in the Caribbean have declined.

Scientists do not know why reefs are healthier in Cuba and whether Cuban reefs exchange their drifting babies, or larvae, with reefs of other nations.

U.S. and Cuban scientists have wanted to study sharks, corals and other marine life together, but were unable to because of the multi-decade trade embargo that severely restricted travel between the two nations. Recently, U.S. and Cuba diplomatic relations have improved.

Many are hoping this helps increase opportunities for Cuban and American scientists to collaborate on important scientific research.

“This was the culmination of about two years’ worth of work,” said Hueter. “I’ve been going to Cuba for about 10-years, but everything has been a slow collaboration with our Cuban scientists friends. Last February it all came together with this exhibition.”

For more than 10 years, Mote scientists have been traveling to Cuba and forging collaborations with Cuban institutions.

Mote is an independent, nonprofit institution not subject to as many Cuba travel restrictions placed on U.S. state and federal institutions.

The Lab’s top-notch scientists have been working with Cuban partners to study the nation’s sharks and rays, other fishes, marine mammals and corals — and February’s expedition advanced their work in exciting ways.

“Trustful collaboration is the way to go if we want to preserve our shared resources,” said Cuban partner Dr. Jorge Angulo Valdes, Director of Conservation at the University of Havana’s Center for Marine Research. “This expedition showed how much we can accomplish together.”

These successes are early but vital steps toward filling information gaps about shark populations throughout the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea.

“These important accomplishments represent a quantum leap forward in our U.S.-Cuba collaborative studies of sharks that began about 10 years ago,” Hueter said.