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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/
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday July 09 2019, @10:01PM
The massive illegal fishing fleet that is busy catching everything that moves in the world's oceans will be very keen on getting hold of this data.
They are currently killing something like 100 million sharks per year and will run out at some point. This will make it much easier for them to find the last few.