![]() Today’s faux seal is named “Scampi”, maybe in hopes that a tasty name will prove inspirational. My attention is focused about 30 feet out on the water where a grey piece of carpet resembling a seal silhouette floats. Sal and Scot dictate a research paper to each other and I watch the ocean, trying to stay balanced on the rocking skiff. Yesterday was a complete bust, and today has been slow. But with such a small number, it doesn’t take a large perturbation in the environment to have a significant impact.” “The goal is to really understand how many there are, and whether that population is rising or falling,” says Randy Kochevar, Science Communications Officer at Hopkins Marine Station.”We have spectacular apex predators right here off our shores. A recent estimate put the number of white sharks in the area at less than 250. The objective is to learn more about the size of the white shark population in Northern California and its condition. Tagging focuses on three areas: the Farrallon Islands, Point Reyes and Ano Nuevo. Shark tagging in Northern California typically takes place in October and November, a collaboration between the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, next door to the Aquarium. The sharks are longer than the skiff and weigh a ton or more. In the rear of the boat are Sal Jorgensen and Scot Anderson, two scientists who spend a month here each year luring great white sharks close enough to touch, and hopefully attach a scientific tag to. We’re about a hundred yards offshore of the Farallon Islands, 25 miles west of San Francisco, California. and after a three-hour boat ride I was holding a 25-pound camera on a raised platform in a small skiff that rolls and bobs in a heavy swell. Station of Stanford University are doing with white sharks. I’m here filming the research the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Hopkins Marine It’s two in the afternoon and I’m having a great day at the office, better than most. The serrated teeth carve out another 20 pounds of seal meat. The tail thrashes the ocean for purchase, levering the head back and forth in a whipsaw motion. The sheer violence of the attack is breathtaking. Ten yards in front of me, a 14-foot great white shark churns the water into a pink foam as it chews basketball-size chunks of elephant seal from a fresh kill. Photos ©Monterey Bay Aquarium, photographed by Tyson Rininger Here’s to many more white sharks leaving and returning to the coast for generations to come! monterey bay aquarium great white shark shark research marine science conservation tagging oh buoyīy Chuck Saltsman, Senior Producer, Interpretive Media at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. ![]() Thanks to your support of the Aquarium as members and donors, we’re building models of future population growth and the vulnerability of this species to harvests, pollution, climate change and other threats. These data help us monitor our local sharks year after year, helping us spot trends in their behavior as we continue to investigate their role in the ecosystem. We’re often asked if there are white sharks in the Monterey Bay-and indeed there are, especially in the watery part! In fact, there’s a shark listening buoy right off the back deck of the Aquarium and nearby Hopkins Marine Station!ĭata and graph ©Tagging of Pelagic Predators White sharks unplugged - Live from the Aquarium ![]() If a buoy hears one of these tags-and because sound travels so well in water, they can pick up a shark over great distances-researchers know in real time where the sharks are! Up and down central Californian waters, an array of buoys equipped with underwater listening stations patiently awaits these prodigal fishes.Īcoustic tags affixed to the sharks’ backs continuously pulse an identifying sound code that’s imperceptible to marine life. In the fall and winter, white sharks return from their pelagic vacation and spend more time nearer the coast, in relatively shallow water. A decade ago our researchers discovered that local, central Californian great whites migrate to a “White Shark Café” in the middle of the open ocean-presumably attracted by artisanal fare or a Fin-der date.īecause the satellite tags used to track these movements don’t transmit any data until they pop off from the sharks many months later, our scientists sit patiently refreshing their inboxes until the data streams in. Tracking white sharks is complicated stuff. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |