4 | The View
Fluellen encountered a number of species during her time in the Bahamas including barracuda, stingrays, lemon sharks, and even a tiger shark.
SHARK GIRL! “Fascinating” Creatures Inspire Biology Student Taylor Fluellen Swimming with sharks – is there anything scarier? It’s old hat for Taylor Fluellen, a Bellevue University biology student, who completed a two-month research program at the Bimini Shark Lab this past fall. The lab is part of the Bimini Biological Field Station, located on the island of South Bimini, Bahamas. Even with that experience, Fluellen did have one encounter that made her heart skip a beat or two. She was out on a cloudy September day catching stingrays when a dorsal fin broke the water’s surface. Comfortable in the relative safety of her small boat, she was excited to see what she thought was a lemon
shark. It was a tiger shark, a fish with a much more dangerous reputation than its more docile cousin, the lemon. “We followed it for a bit, but then lost it and decided to go back to catching stingrays,” she said. “Later, I’m just sitting there in the cold water. It’s cloudy and it’s all very quiet. It felt just like one of those shark movies.” On the whole, Fluellen describes her experience as “pretty spectacular” rather than pretty scary. “I saw just about everything I wanted to see in terms of ocean life. My favorite thing to do was trawling. You drive really fast in
