She saw a scary shark movie as a little girl — now she studies sharks up close

By Catherine Guinovart
Angela Nicoletti and Christine Calvo contributed to this story. 

Deep Blue Sea may not be the most well-known horror film about sharks. But, it’s still pretty iconic. (Spoiler alert: Samuel L. Jackson gets devoured by a shark while delivering a speech about teamwork and unity!)

Instead of developing a shark phobia after watching this movie as a child, Laura Garcia Barcia was fascinated by the on-screen scientists.

Today, Garcia Barcia is a Ph.D. candidate in FIU’s Predator Ecology and Conservation Lab. She’s not trying to create more intelligent mutant sharks in a search for the cure to Alzheimer’s Disease like in Deep Blue Sea. But, under the guidance of FIU marine scientist Demian Chapman, she’s examining the levels of toxic chemicals, like mercury, found in sharks and other large marine animals like whales or giant squid.

Garcia Barcia grew up in Castellar del Vallès in Spain. Forests covered her small village, which was about one hour away from the coastline of Barcelona. 

It was a visit to the L’Oceanographic in Valencia — the largest aquarium in Europe — that brought the ocean to her. She saw animals she’d never seen before. Seahorses. Beluga whales. Shark species only found all over the world. She was captivated. And this is where her love for marine animals truly began.

Garcia Barcia came to FIU as an undergraduate study abroad student from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She took several marine biology electives that were not offered back home. She worked in the Heithaus Lab surveying bull sharks in the Everglades, as well as studying the foraging ecology of green sea turtles in the Caribbean. By her senior year, she was hooked.

These experiences made her realize what she perhaps knew all along — she wanted to be a scientist and spend her life studying large marine predators.  Instead of returning home to Spain, Garcia Barcia decided to stay and pursue her Ph.D. at FIU.

Garcia Barcia has already conducted groundbreaking research. Working with Chapman and a collaborative team of researchers from the United States and Hong Kong, she recently published a study that found dangerously high levels of toxic mercury in shark fins sold in Asian markets.