Wes Pratt

Harold “Wes” Pratt is a semi-retired shark researcher with a 50-year career studying the biology of Atlantic blue, shortfin mako, white, nurse and sandbar sharks first with NOAA's Apex Predator Program in Narragansett, RI, and now collaborating as Adjunct with the Fisheries Science and Emerging Technologies team at New England Aquarium. Work with his colleagues Nick Whitney, and Theo Pratt in the Florida Keys since 1991 has resulted in cutting-edge discoveries into the reproduction, site-fidelity, migrations, and mating behavior of the nurse shark.  They have revealed many previously unknown and unexpected facets of the complex lives of these fascinating but poorly understood vulnerable sharks.

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Wes is a diver, photographer; Coast Guard licensed Captain and has lived and worked undersea in a saturation diving mode several times. He has over 45 years’ experience diving with sharks both in and out anti-shark cages and from sit-on-top kayaks. Pratt is very concerned with the future of both sharks and humans.