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Great white's marathon sea trek
BBC News ^ | October 6, 2005 | Roland Pease

Posted on 10/08/2005 11:29:02 AM PDT by bd476


The shark may have made the journey to find a mate

A great white shark crossed the Indian Ocean from South Africa to Australia and back again within just nine months.

It was one of several great whites tagged by researchers in an attempt to improve conservation strategies.

Writing in the journal Science, they say the journey is unparalleled among fish - only tuna come close.

The mere act of tagging a great white is something of a feat; several people need to hold the creature still while the satellite tracker is attached.

EPIC OCEAN JOURNEY
In pictures
The project will inform
future conservation strategies

This device was fixed to the female shark's trademark dorsal fin. Thankfully no scientists - and no sharks - suffered during the tagging.

The conservationists were investigating how far great whites wander, to see what protection measures might be needed to save them from extinction.

Several of the sharks migrated from South African to Mozambiquan territorial waters - where they are not protected.

Mate search

But Ramon Bonfil of the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, US, and colleagues were stunned by the epic journey of the shark they called Nicole - after the shark-loving Australian actress Nicole Kidman.

"We suspect that she went for reproductive reasons," Dr Bonfil said.

"There's plenty of food around South Africa and she would be using too much energy to just go to Australia to feed. Of course we can't prove this at this stage, it is just a hunch."

Great whites were once thought to keep to coastal regions, but this was a trek across a vast expanse of open ocean.

The journey was very direct, not some aimless wandering. And the stay near Australia was only brief.

The researchers say the fact that they saw a shark make the journey at all - after observing only about 20 animals - suggests it is common behaviour.

Their concern is that such migrations make the great whites vulnerable to long-line fishing.

It is already known that lesser sharks do get captured and killed this way.

Given that the great white's population is small anyway, the species can ill afford to lose numbers in this way.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: breeding; distant; science; shark
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From the article:
"...The mere act of tagging a great white is something of a feat; several people need to hold the creature still while the satellite tracker is attached..."

I don't imagine it would be much fun to draw the short straw for that task.

1 posted on 10/08/2005 11:29:03 AM PDT by bd476
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To: bd476

Great White

2 posted on 10/08/2005 11:31:15 AM PDT by South40 (Amnesty for ILLEGALS is a slap in the face to the USBP!)
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To: bd476

How in the heck do you hold a great white?!?


3 posted on 10/08/2005 11:31:20 AM PDT by beaversmom
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To: beaversmom

Clink on the "In Picture" link. Pretty amazing.


4 posted on 10/08/2005 11:38:59 AM PDT by DAC22
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To: South40

LOL!


5 posted on 10/08/2005 11:41:28 AM PDT by bd476
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To: beaversmom
beaversmom wrote: How in the heck do you hold a great white?!?

Very carefully I reckon.

6 posted on 10/08/2005 11:42:35 AM PDT by bd476
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61% of the time the shark was near the surface.

It would be more comforting for this human if the shark took more frequent deep sea dives.

7 posted on 10/08/2005 11:47:28 AM PDT by bd476
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To: beaversmom

Sharky needs a hug!

8 posted on 10/08/2005 11:49:58 AM PDT by dagnabbit (Vincente Fox's opening line at the Mexico-USA summit meeting: "Bring out the Gimp!")
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To: bd476

[This device was fixed to the female shark's trademark dorsal fin.]




How does a shark get its dorsal fin "trademarked"?


9 posted on 10/08/2005 11:50:06 AM PDT by spinestein (Forget the Golden Rule. Remember the Brazen Rule.)
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To: bd476

I wonder what she ate when she was in the middle of the ocean, far from any coastline or islands.


10 posted on 10/08/2005 11:50:31 AM PDT by sassbox
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To: spinestein
Ha! Good catch!
/ pun intended

11 posted on 10/08/2005 11:55:20 AM PDT by bd476
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To: sassbox
sassbox wrote: "I wonder what she ate when she was in the middle of the ocean, far from any coastline or islands."

Perhaps they fast when traveling cross-ocean.

On the other hand, there are many shark attacks on the Australia coastline. Maybe the shark was saving her appetite for a feast upon arrival.

12 posted on 10/08/2005 11:59:03 AM PDT by bd476
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To: sassbox
I wonder what she ate when she was in the middle of the ocean, far from any coastline or islands.

Anything she felt like, I imagine.

13 posted on 10/08/2005 12:09:08 PM PDT by Maceman (Fake But Accurate)
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To: Maceman

I hope it DID NOT find a mate. These things are killers to all who enjoy the ocean.


14 posted on 10/08/2005 12:15:20 PM PDT by RushingWater
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To: Ramius; HairOfTheDog

I don't begin to know how these guys are making this happen, and getting away with it too. I won't be surprised to hear that there are fewer shark researchers, though, if they keep it up.

OTOH, this is really cool.


15 posted on 10/08/2005 12:15:33 PM PDT by Sam Cree (absolute reality)
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To: Sam Cree

It is a preety cool job, really.


16 posted on 10/08/2005 12:22:55 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog (Join the Hobbit Hole Troop Support - http://freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net/)
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To: bd476
"...with dives to 980m".

Holy cow! That's pretty deep.

17 posted on 10/08/2005 12:33:03 PM PDT by RedWing9 (No tag here... Just want to stay vague...)
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To: South40
>Great white's marathon
>>Great White



"Take off! To the Great White North!
Take off! It's a beauty way to go.
Take off! To the Great White North!"

18 posted on 10/08/2005 12:38:58 PM PDT by theFIRMbss
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To: bd476; All

Perhaps ... like salmon and several others ... they return to the site of their birth ...


19 posted on 10/08/2005 12:41:15 PM PDT by Countyline
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To: sassbox
I wonder what she ate when she was in the middle of the ocean, far from any coastline or islands.

Sperm whales dive deep to eat squid. Maybe that's what she was doing.

20 posted on 10/08/2005 12:49:38 PM PDT by Hugin
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