{"id":597046,"date":"2026-04-10T03:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T03:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/597046\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T03:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T03:15:13","slug":"shark-tagger-jobs-how-to-become-a-shark-tagger-in-australia-and-everything-to-know-from-senior-fisheries-scientist-amy-smoothey-exclusive-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/597046\/","title":{"rendered":"Shark Tagger jobs: How to become a Shark Tagger in Australia and everything to know from Senior Fisheries Scientist, Amy Smoothey | Exclusive Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like plenty of Aussie kids, Dr Amy Smoothey spent most of her childhood on the coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her free time was spent at the beach, snorkelling, fishing and wandering around rocky shores.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But as she got older, there was something about Australia’s attitude toward the ocean that bothered her, and that was the misrepresentation and misinformation surrounding sharks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, Smoothey is a Shark Ecologist at NSW Department of Primary Industries, focusing on educating the public on the fact that sharks are “not mindless predators,” and instead actually “play an important role in keeping the marine ecosystem in a balanced and healthy state”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“An ocean without sharks is much scarier than an ocean with sharks,” she tells nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\"AmyDr. Amy SMoothey has been researching bull sharks for more than 16 years now. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Smoothey has been working with sharks for more than 16 years now, with a passion for helping to protect them and their habitats, while also keeping people safe in the ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“My typical day or week is very diverse, and that’s one of the main aspects that I love about my job,” she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It can involve being in the field catching and tagging sharks, carrying out shark dissections, investigating shark bite incidents through to data analyses, writing research papers and reports to provide evidence-based scientific findings to managers and the public.”<\/p>\n

\"AmyShe works with the public to correct misinformation surronding the animals. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

She explains that when a shark attack happens in NSW, her role is to investigate the bite pattern to find out what kind of shark was involved, so that she can determine any further actions required to minimise the risk to swimmers and also gain some insight into the factors that might have influenced the interaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But she says that her favourite part of the job is getting to spend time in the field, leading the bull shark tagging research for NSW.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AmyBut her favourite part of the job is working in the field, tagging sharks. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“I get to spend time in the field collecting data on animals that have been around before dinosaurs, yet we know so little about them,” she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Researching sharks is incredibly rewarding, but it is not your typical 9-5 job.\u00a0 My work is dynamic; every day is different.\u00a0 I work long hours, yet it’s incredibly rewarding and fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I am also very passionate about sharing our science with the public. Education and awareness are critical to improving public knowledge of sharks and mitigating fear.<\/p>\n

\"AmyShe says that rolling sharks on their backs induces a trance-like state, known as tonic immobility, to minimises injury to the shark and researcher. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“By researching these apex predators, my aim is to provide scientifically based knowledge to the public, ultimately separating fact from fiction about largely misunderstood animals.”<\/p>\n

Tagging research in New South Wales focuses on bull, white and tiger sharks and is “estimated to be the largest [program] in the world,” tagging 2700 sharks since 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the past 16 years of her career, Smoothey has never been injured by a shark, explaining that the closest she’s gotten is a simple rash from dermal denticles, tiny tooth-like structures that cover a shark’s skin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AmyIn her 16-year career, Smoothey has never once been injured by a shark. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“When the skin is rubbed from head towards the tail, it is smooth, yet when rubbed from the tail towards the head, it is very abrasive and feels like sandpaper,” she explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smoothey has worked with all kinds of sharks throughout her career, joking that being asked to choose a favourite is basically the same as being asked to choose a favourite child.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But if she had to pick just one, it would have to be the bull sharks she’s spent the past 16 years dedicating her research to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AmyShe says if she had to pick a favourite shark to work with, it would have to be the bull shark. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

And while she understands the behaviour of sharks, she constantly finds herself having to correct those who believe the animals to be “man-eaters”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There are over 182 species of sharks in our oceans in Australia, and most of them pose no threat to humans, with only a small number of shark species being responsible for unprovoked bites on water users,” she explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AmyShe hopes that her research can help educate the public and mitigate their fear fo the animals. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“But our fascination with sharks means that these rare shark bite events receive a large amount of media attention.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The majority of unprovoked bites are caused by mistaken identity, with sharks having an investigatory bite and realising we are not food and releasing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Obviously, as sharks don’t have hands, they use their mouths to investigate the object they are curious about, leading to injuries to humans they interact with.”<\/p>\n

Produced in partnership with CareerOne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like plenty of Aussie kids, Dr Amy Smoothey spent most of her childhood on the coast.\u00a0 Her free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-597046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}