Samuel H. Gruber (May 13, 1938 – April 18, 2019) was a

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimo ...

biologist and founder of the American Elasmobranch Society. He was a professor at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

's Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science and the founder of the

Bimini Bimini is the westernmost district of the Bahamas and comprises a chain of islands located about due east of Miami. Bimini is the closest point in the Bahamas to the mainland United States and approximately west-northwest of Nassau. The populat ...

Biological Field Station Foundation.

Biography

Dr. Gruber hailed originally from Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in south Florida. He entered college in 1956, studying first at Emory University and then earning his B.S. in Zoology from the University of Miami (FL). He followed up in quick succession with his M.S. and Ph.D. in Marine Science from the then called Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Science, again at the University of Miami. He held several positions there and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max-Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology, Seewiesen, Germany, where he was a behavioral researcher under Nobel Laureate Professor Dr. Konrad Lorenz.

Research

Gruber was a recognized authority on shark science, having completed 49 Atlantic research cruises and 170 scientific publications. He has specialized in shark behavior, anatomy, sensory systems, tracking, and

shark repellent A shark repellent is any method of driving sharks away from an area. Shark repellents are a category of animal repellents. Shark repellent technologies include magnetic shark repellent, electropositive shark repellents, electrical repellents, an ...

s. Gruber is perhaps best known for his studies on habitat selection and homing behavior of

lemon shark The lemon shark (''Negaprion brevirostris'') is a species of shark from the family Carcharhinidae and is classified as a Vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Lemon sharks can grow to in length. They are o ...

s and

eagle ray The eagle rays are a group of cartilaginous fishes in the family Myliobatidae, consisting mostly of large species living in the open ocean rather than on the sea bottom. Eagle rays feed on mollusks and crustaceans, crushing their shells with the ...

s around the Bimini Shark Lab.

Institutions

In 1983 Gruber founded the American Elasmobranch Society (AES). The AES is the world's largest association of shark and ray scientists. Gruber established the now world-famous "Shark Lab" in 1990, after successfully battling malignant lymphoma. The next year he helped found and served as the first chair of the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

(IUCN) Shark Specialist Group.

Media appearances

In August 2008, Gruber appeared on the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

's documentary series, ''Evolve'' episode 4, entitled "Sex". Gruber has also made several appearances on television programs for

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

Shark Week Shark Week is an annual, week long TV programming block at the Discovery Channel, which features shark-based programming. Shark Week originally premiered on July 17, 1988. Featured annually, in July or early August, it was originally devoted to c ...

, including an appearance in ''Sharkman'', in which

Michael Rutzen Michael Rutzen (born 11 October 1970) is a South African conservationist, film maker and cage diving operator. Since the beginning of his career as a conservationist, Rutzen has provided field support to the Department of the Environmental A ...

attempts to learn how to hypnotize sharks, and in the show ''10 Deadliest Sharks'', where he describes the behavior of

s. He also made an appearance in 2008 on the Discovery Channel ''

MythBusters ''MythBusters'' is a science entertainment television program, developed by Peter Rees and produced by Australia's Beyond Television Productions. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast internatio ...

'', also during Shark week.

References

2019 deaths People from Brooklyn Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science alumni University of Miami faculty Scientists from New York (state) 1938 births {{US-biologist-stub