Just off the coast of Belize, the world’s second-largest offshore barrier reef shelters the shoreline, creating wide, shallow stretches of turquoise water over seagrass flats and coral patches. These connected habitats support one of the Caribbean’s most productive fisheries, including a healthy shark population. As apex predators, sharks help keep these systems in balance. They’re also at risk. A long-standing coastal fishery sustains local communities, but it also puts pressure on shark populations. How these waters are fished and managed will determine whether sharks and fishing communities can continue side by side. For more than a decade, researchers have worked alongside fishers to track shark populations, movement and fishing pressure, defining what it will take to sustain them. Sharks are typically studied where they are protected. Here, the research happens where they are caught, offering rare insight into complex, real-world situations.