Tagging Great White Sharks–Carefully
Monday, August 5th, 2013August 5, 2013
Getting up and close and personal with great white sharks off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, will be the focus of a month-long expedition by researchers with OCEARCH, a nonprofit organization dedicated to studying and protecting sharks, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The researchers hope to tag and study from 10 to 20 great white sharks, one of the most dangerous–and important–animals in the sea.
Sharks are, like lions and tigers, top predators and play a major role in maintaining the ecological balance of the oceans. But a 2009 survey by the International Union for Conservation of Nature found that one-third of 64 species surveyed are threatened with extinction, mainly because of overfishing. Most of the shark are targeted for their fins, which are used in soups popular in many Asian countries. Commonly, fishers cut the fins from the shark and then throw the animal back in the water to die. An estimated 100 million sharks are killed each year.
The OCEARCH/Woods Hole team plans to catch the great whites using hooks designed to minimize harm to the animals. The sharks will then be reeled aboard the ship using a specially designed hydraulic lift that allows water to circulate over the sharks’ gills. Scientists will then spend 15 minutes tagging the sharks with GPS devices, taking blood and tissue samples, and conducting a number of other tests. The sharks will then be released. Scientists hope the tracking devices will help them learn more about the still-largely unknown seasonal movements of the sharks and the health of the great white population in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Students and the public will be able to follow the movements of the newly tagged sharks–as well as some 30 previously tagged sharks–at the OCEARCH website.