On the hunt for sharks in Boston Harbor

Beneath the waves of Boston Harbor, hidden in murky inlets and marshes, the start of a marine conservation success story is quietly unfolding. It’s a story of diligence and disappointment, of scalpels and sutures and blood, of long bouts of calm and short bursts of frenetic energy. It’s a story that spans decades and many miles of shoreline.

On a stunning late August afternoon, researchers from the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium set out on a small boat to write the next chapter in that story. Their mission is to implant tracking devices in juvenile sand tiger sharks. Their mood is buoyant, perhaps even giddy.

That atmosphere is largely the product of Ryan Knotek, the shark researcher leading the tagging efforts. Most days, his work involves sitting at hi