President Steve Stauffer called the meeting to order

Brian Goode offered the prayer and led the pledge to the flag

 

Announcements:

 

 

 

 

 

The membership was made aware of the passing on Saturday March 9 of Club member Lou Benfante.  His funeral will be held on Saturday March 30th at 2:00 pm at St. Francis by the Sea Catholic Church.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Social - the Oyster Roast at Otto Ferrene's home has been rescheduled to April 6.

 

There is No Meeting Next week because all are encouraged to sign up and attend the Friday luncheon (March 22) at the All Club Conference.  VLR will be providing Sergeant at Arms at the Conference on Friday and a sign up sheet was circulated for volunteers to sign up for a shift.  At least four people are needed per shift.

 

Next Tuesday, the 19th is a board meeting.

 

Auction - collected $48,000, $17,500 in sponsorship and $5000 from the raffle for a gross figure of $70,000.  Expenses are not in, and second auction will be scheduled soon.

 

Ivan Bennett, New Generations, reported on a field trip to Gulf Stream on Friday the 8th that 25 eighth graders attended.  It was a vocational learning experience and all enjoyed it. 

 

Volunteers are needed to fill shifts at the Heritage.  Alicia passed around a sign up sheet.  

 

Sergeant at Arms Alicia Powell welcomed guests and collected Happy $$.  

 

Speaker:

Bryan Frazier, marine biologist from the Department of Natural Resources presented a fascinating program "Why Sharks Matter"

Bryan conducts research on sharks, collecting data to manage the shark population.  There are over 500 species of sharks. They live in both fresh and salt water.  They are slow growing, slow to reproduce and have few young.  The main predator of sharks are other sharks.  They do not have air bladders like other fish, but have large livers which gives them lift.  They can be egg layers, or live birth.  In South Carolina the estuaries provide lots of food and are the nursery area. When the water cools, they must leave, but many return as juveniles  In the  larger areas, like the sound you find bigger sharks.  There are 17 species that are local and a small proportion of them are dangerous.  The SC DNR conducts sampling monthly and yearly in some areas to see patterns, trending information and to obtain information on abundance and feeding.  Movement ecology - using tagging - conventional tags, acoustic tags and satellite tags.  They  have found that sharks come back to the same area and move as far south as needed when the water cools depending how cold the winter is.  Satellite tags have shown that Great White Sharks spend most of the time in coastal areas and less time in ocean areas.  Sharks keep everything in balance.  They keep the local population healthy - they go after the sick and injured.  The U.S. does well to manage the shark population, but world wide does not such a good job.  SC has about four bites a year reported and rarely are they severe ones.  Florida has much more because they do not have the sounds and estuaries where the sharks congregate, so in Florida they come to the beaches where there are many people.  The research done locally is driven by grants and federal funding, very little from SC funds.