Natalia Chi
As summer sets in and people spend more time at sea, researchers are learning more about the mysterious apex predator that swims beneath the surface. A group of scientists continue to study and track great white sharks on a research vessel in the Atlantic 12 miles off the coast of North Carolina.
“We’re seeing an ocean full of life like we haven’t seen since the 1940s and 1950s,” Chris Fisher, founder of the research organization Oak Arch, told CBS News.
Oseach has been studying and tagging great white sharks for the past decade. Meanwhile, Fisher has observed an increase in the number of great white sharks.
Covered by CBS News First example of Ocearch tagging a great white shark In 2012, he caught a 15-foot-long shark, which Fisher called at the time perhaps “the most important fish I’ve caught in my life.”
Ocearch is currently studying over 90 great white sharks and tracking their migration patterns online.
“We know pretty much everything except proving where to mate,” Fisher said.
CBS News watched as bait was thrown into the water and sharks emerged and surrounded the ship. After the nearly 15-foot-long female shark was hoisted onto the ship, researchers quickly set up satellite tags, took blood, and even performed an ultrasound while the shark was awake, much like a NASCAR pit crew. worked on You only have 15 minutes to keep an animal out of the water. The researchers pumped seawater into the shark’s gills so it could continue to breathe.
Within minutes, samples were collected for 24 different scientific studies, including one that tested hormone levels in sharks to identify whether they were mating.
Chief scientist Dr. Bob Whiter argued that healthy shark populations are good for the planet as a whole.
“When we bring them back, we restore the balance of the oceans and reset the system to keep us in peak health. [not only] Not just for the sharks, but for ourselves,” said Whiter.
“We really need to retrain how to play and enjoy the wilder, richer waters,” Fisher said of the fact that more and more great white sharks are swimming among us.
“Look at the ocean before you go into it,” Fisher added. “You wouldn’t want to be in a bait bowl with prey on it because the birds would dive in and the sharks would be in it. When you see a mountain lion stalking a herd of moose, you certainly think so.” Let’s go.” Don’t go out in the middle of a herd of moose. So you have to approach water the same way you approach land. “
