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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday July 09 2019, @02:05PM   Printer-friendly
from the tagging-at-home dept.

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

After a week in the Bahamas with our wonderful partners at the CAPE ELEUTHERA INSTITUTE, this weekend we managed to achieve history—tagging an animal from a submersible (submarine) for the first time—EVER.

Our objective was the deep-sea shark, the bluntnose sixgill. This ancient species predates most dinosaurs, and is a dominant predator of the deep sea ecosystem. The lead scientist on the mission, FSU MARINE LAB'S DR. DEAN GRUBBS, has been the first to put a satellite tag on one of these elusive sharks, but until now had only been able to do so by bringing them up to the surface.

Because bluntnose sixgills are a deep sea species, it's hard on them physiologically to be tagged in this way. In their typical life cycle, they won't experience daylight, and very rarely will they feel the low pressure, warmer temperatures of surface waters. Typically, the data obtained after surface tagging of a six gill is believed to be skewed, as the shark does not return to its natural behaviors for some time after the tagging.

[...] This is historic for a variety of reasons. Now that we've proven this method can work for the sixgill, we can unlock the world of leviathan deep-sea dwellers and gain important insights into their movement and behavior.

Source: http://www.oceanx.org/shark-deep-sea-shark-tagging-submersible-first-ever/


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by EvilSS on Tuesday July 09 2019, @02:48PM

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 09 2019, @02:48PM (#864990)
    I'm just imaging this shark out there with graffiti spray painted all over it now.
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