Basking sharks are the 2nd largest fish that swim to the Northeastern coast of the United States to feed on zooplankton every summer. However, no one knew where these sharks migrated to in the winter so a crew of researchers used satellites to solve the mystery of these 10 meter long sharks to better protect them, which may be fewer than 10,000 worldwide.
To track the sharks, a marine biologists and his crew spotted a group of 25 basking sharks along the coast of Massachusetts and clipped satellite tags on the sharks’ dorsal fins. The tags recorded temperature, depth and light information. The tags are set on a preprogrammed date to pop off and record the data that they’d collected. Of the 25 sharks, 18 were received back with data.
From the information collected, they found that 8 of the basking sharks remained along the northeastern coast, while 10 of them migrated to their territory, traveling to Bermuda and Puerto Rico and as far as Brazil. The sharks dived as deep as 1000 meters on these journeys (Pappas 2009). This explains why they have been undetected for so long. Another interesting fact about these sharks is that no one has ever seen a baby basking shark and know where and when they mate.
Knowing where the sharks go in the winter is good news for the conservationist because once these sharks are caught by fishermen, they can be sold for $50,000. Protecting these fish will require international cooperation.
Citation Information
Pappas, Stephanie. 2009 “How Do You Hide a 5-ton Shark?" ScienceNOW Daily News[Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 25]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/507/2
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