Robert Edward Hueter is an American

marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology clas ...

and Senior Scientist Emeritus at

Mote Marine Laboratory Mote Marine Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit, marine research organization based on City Island in Sarasota, Florida, with additional campuses in eastern Sarasota County, Boca Grande, Florida, and the Florida Keys. Founded in 1955 by Eug ...

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, Florida, Punta Gord ...

. Previously, he was Director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote. He primarily studies

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...

s and has authored over 200 papers related to marine biology.

Biography

He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

in 1974, followed by a master's degree from the same university in

Marine Biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and ...

in 1980. He received a Ph.D. in

Zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

in 1988. Hueter initially joined Mote Marine Laboratory in 1988 as a postdoctoral scientist. As of 2001, he occupies the Perry W. Gilbert Chair in Shark Research at Mote. From 2003 to 2012, he helped lead research off the coast of the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...

that found the largest aggregation of

whale shark The whale shark (''Rhincodon typus'') is a slow-moving, filter feeder, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known Extant taxon, extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of . The whale shark holds many records for ...

s ever discovered. In 2015, he was part of an expedition to study sharks in Cuban waters alongside Cuban scientists that was featured on an episode of

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 that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

Shark Week Shark Week is an annual week-long programming block on the Discovery Channel focusing on shark-themed programming. It originally premiered on July 17, 1988. The block is featured annually in the summer, and was originally devoted to conservati ...

called "Tiburones: The Sharks of Cuba". From 1997 to 2021, he served on the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel for the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

. Dr. Hueter served as Chief Science Advisor from 2017 to 2020 for the nonprofit research and education organization OCEARCH and since 2020 has been employed by OCEARCH as the organization's Chief Scientist. His current work with OCEARCH is focused on multidisciplinary studies of the

white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is the ...

in the Northwest Atlantic.

Honors and awards

In 2007, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Conservation from

Sarasota County Sarasota County is a county located in Southwest Florida. At the 2020 US census, the population was 434,006. Its county seat is Sarasota and its largest city is North Port. Sarasota County is part of the North Port–Bradenton–Sarasota, F ...

, Florida. He received the

Eugenie Clark Eugenie Clark (May 4, 1922 – February 25, 2015), popularly known as The Shark Lady, was an American ichthyologist known for both her research on shark behavior and her study of fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. Clark was a pioneer in the fie ...

Scientific Explorers Award from Mote Marine Laboratory in 2008. He was president of the

American Elasmobranch Society The American Elasmobranch Society (AES) is an international learned society devoted to the scientific study of chondrichthyans (shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal den ...

in 1993 and served on the AES Board of Directors for more than a decade.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hueter, Robert Living people University of Florida alumni University of Miami alumni American ichthyologists People from Sarasota, Florida Year of birth missing (living people)

Biography

Honors and awards

See also

References