Sharks used as ocean sensors to aid hurricane research

OCEARCH founder Chris Fischer emphasized the importance of collaboration in shark research. (WBBH via CNN Newsource)

FORT MYERS, Florida (WBBH) -- Scientists are exploring the use of tagged sharks as mobile ocean sensors to collect critical data for hurricane research and environmental studies.

“Satellites, remote sensing, things like that only look at the surfaces of the ocean, just the skin. And so, what’s really going on below is what drives these hurricane dynamics,” said Aaron Carlisle from the University of Delaware, who is leading the project.

Tracking conditions around hurricanes can be expensive, with ships costing tens of thousands of dollars per day and gliders reaching up to US$1 million each. Sharks, however, provide free, 24-hour labour.

“We can leverage the natural behaviours of sharks as they swim around the ocean doing their sharky things and put these ocean observing tags on them that record what’s going on throughout the water column,” Carlisle said.

When sharks resurface, they transmit critical water temperature data from various depths.

Carlisle explained, “If you put out a good number, like a fleet of these sharks, they can basically complement and greatly expand the amount of data we have to make these hurricane predictions.”

Temperature, depth, and location data are transmitted to create a living network of ocean sensors. Some tags have been lost due to battery life or displacement, but Carlisle and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are working to optimize the design and programming of the tags to maximize data transmission. They hope to tag a handful of sharks this year to begin building the dataset.

Although Carlisle is specifically interested in temperature profiles of the ocean, shark tagging for scientific research is not new. OCEARCH, a global nonprofit shark research organization, has tagged nearly 500 sharks since 2007.

“The goal is to put together the entire life history of the white shark, the white shark, or the great white shark,” said Dr. Harley Newton, an OCEARCH scientist.

OCEARCH founder Chris Fischer emphasized the importance of collaboration in shark research.

“It doesn’t really cost me any more money to throw a scientist in a bunk,” Fischer said.

While OCEARCH is not directly involved in Carlisle’s project, Fischer sees potential in linking shark movement data with weather patterns.

“I think that if we understood how to interpret the dataset around how they move and integrate that around weather, I don’t think that’s a crazy idea at all,” Fischer said.

Newton added, “They are far more aware of our oceanographic features than even we are. So, they make ideal oceanographers, as it were, to show us sort of what’s important.”

Most of Carlisle and OCEARCH’s missions are off the East Coast, but shark research is also active in the Gulf Coast. Pat O’Donnell, a fisheries biologist, has been studying sharks in the region for over 25 years.

Rookery Bay intern Laini Potter explained their use of a permitted gill net for shark research.

“So, the intention is that the shark will be swimming, it won’t see it, and it will swim into it and kind of tangle itself into it,” Potter said.

Potter noted that their research focuses on the effects of the Picayune Strand restoration project on estuaries.

“What we are looking at is the effects of the Picayune Strand restoration project that was just completed. So, we are looking at how well those efforts worked on these estuaries,” she said.

Fischer highlighted the ecological importance of sharks, saying, “They’re the balance-keeper. You know, if you understand how the wolf operates in Yellowstone, the white shark is the wolf, just like the lion in the Serengeti.”

Newton assured that the tagging process does not harm the sharks.

“We liken the fins of these animals to be sort of like your earlobe. So, sort of like a piercing, like there’s not a huge amount of sensitivity there, if any,” she said.

By tagging sharks, researchers hope to uncover secrets beneath the ocean’s surface and gain insights into what fuels the atmosphere above it.

By Allyson Rae.