A large expedition to tag great white sharks set out yesterday to learn more about the feared creatures.
Cape Cod researchers hope to tag at least 20 of the sharks, which have been studied minimally in the past, LiveScience reported. This will be the largest-ever shark tagging mission in the history of the U.S.
The shark tagging effort hopes to not only discover more about the elusive aquatic beasts, but to bring awareness to their endangered status.
About 100 million sharks are killed every year from both illegal and lawful fishing practices.
"Sharks do the same things lions do in Africa and tigers in Asia. Apex predators play important roles in maintaining ecological diversity," Simon Thorrold, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution senior researcher, said, according to a WHOI press release.
The researchers will use barbless hooks to reel the large sharks onto a hydraulic lift; the hooks are designed to inflict minimal harm. The team is also concerned with the animal's stress level; they plant to only keep the shark's out of the water for 15 minutes at most. In order to prevent the animal from suffocating, their gills will be continuously bathed in salt water, LiveScience reported.
"It's like a NASCAR pit crew," "[The sharks don't struggle too much, and] really chill out on the platform,"
A GPS device will be attached to the shark's dorsal fin and the scientists will perform a number of tests on the great whites.
"We're missing the very basics: what they eat, how often they eat, where they breed. There's a real knowledge gap," Thorrold said, according to the press release.
Recent research has shown great whites follow two basic routes. A number of the sharks stay around the East Coast, fairly close to shore. The other group swims through the Atlantic Ocean and makes a "wide circle" towards Bermuda, LiveScience reported.
In the past, researchers thought great white sharks only hung out near the shore, they were surprised to discover they migrated out into deeper waters.
"That really blew our minds," Thorrold said.
