Shark Quest: Protecting the Ocean's Top Predators by Karen Romano Young

Author:Karen Romano Young [Romano Young, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group
Published: 2018-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

A tourist in a diving cage off Mexico’s Pacific coast photographs a great white shark. Researchers are learning more about if and how human presence in shark territory impacts the animals’ behavior.

Tagging helps divers, both tourists and researchers, get a good look at sharks. When they are knowledgeable, citizen scientists can identify an animal’s biological sex and figure out which sharks are sexually active. They can spot male claspers, and females may show bite scars from mating or may be visibly pregnant. Scientists will place a small acoustic bracelet tag to sharks’ caudal peduncle (tail). Like other acoustic tags, these tags record baseline information about the normal travels of pregnant and mating sharks. The tags also record how shark bodies respond to their activities, such as how their breathing rate changes as they move. Establishing a baseline of data for an animal is vital to understanding an animal’s health and well-being over time and in different conditions.

As divers swim and dive with sharks—or turtles or whales or dolphins or other charismatic megafauna (big animal superstars)—they see firsthand the majesty of the animals. They also observe how the animals live within their environments and how they adjust to or suffer from changes to their habitat. That’s valuable. As Greg Skomal says, “With education comes respect, and with respect comes conservation and preservation.”

Tag Guide

Shark scientists use a variety of tags to attach to sharks and then track them to learn more about their behaviors and movements in their ocean habitats.

ID Tags

Spaghetti, business card, or anchor tags are ID tags with a dart to anchor them through the skin and into the shark’s muscle. The shark is caught, tagged, and released. The tag usually bears the date of tagging and a request to report the shark to the agency or researcher that tagged it. This way, the next person who sees the shark can contribute to charting the animal’s path through the sea.

Transmitting Tags

Acoustic tags, or pingers, are attached with a harpoon from a small boat. This method is less disruptive than catch-and-release tagging. Acoustic tags ping, or send an acoustic signal, to communicate with underwater buoys when the shark nears them. The tag sends data from the shark to the buoy. Then the buoy uploads information to the researcher’s computer.

Acoustic bracelets are metal tags that fit over the shark’s caudal peduncle. Research divers attach it to the shark’s tail, and it works just like an acoustic tag.

Smart Position or Temperature Transmitting (SPOT) tags communicate data to satellites in real time when the tagged shark fin breaks the sea surface. Research teams capture the shark to attach the tag to its dorsal fin.

Pop-Off Satellite Archival Tags (PSATs) are programmed to detach from the shark after a set time. They upload their data via satellite.

Cameras

Animal-borne imaging cameras attach to an animal’s back with a suction cup or to the fin with a metal band. Crittercam is one type of animal-born imaging camera. Teams attach the cameras to the shark at the surface. The cameras capture film as the animal dives.

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