DEVIATING
from the Path
Alex took time during her gap year to go into the field to study sharks. Among other species, she swam with great hammerheads during her internship at the Bimini Shark Lab in the Bahamas (please note: these activities were conducted under research permits and are not encouraged for those without proper experience or permitting).
I
f you asked people who knew Alex McInturf ’11 when she was a Country Day student, they would all say she is exactly where they thought she would be. “Studying sharks is something I’ve wanted to do forever,” said McInturf. “When I was accepted into grad school, my friends told me I was the only person they knew who was actually doing what she said she wanted to do back in middle school.”
She has worked under marine biologist Dr. Peter Klimley (“the grandfather of tagging sharks”), who selected her to be the UC Davis liaison for the Sea Monitor Project, a multimillion Euro partnership and project to monitor threatened species in the Northeast Atlantic region, everything from seals to salmon to basking sharks.
She is also involved in the Irish Basking Shark Group, an outreach and education collective. Due to the basking shark’s shy nature, planktivorous diet, and slow rate of reproduction and maturity, basking sharks are difficult to find and study.
“I didn’t have constant access to the ocean living in Ohio; it was huge mystery and a little scary to me,” explained Alex. “As a child, we visited Florida a lot and I remember thinking there was a lot in it that I couldn’t see, so I wondered if I could study the ocean to find out what was in there.” Alex has traveled the world to study sharks and their relatives, visiting South Africa, the Bahamas, Ireland, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, not to mention every U.S. coast.
6 | CONNECTIONS
Alex stopped in to share her shark expertise with first graders. Her curiosity and passion for sharks started at Country Day.
