For the past five years, researchers have been tagging, tracking and monitoring sharks across NSW to find out their migration patterns and behaviours.
Forget “Sharknado” — there is a real-life Sharkcano!
In a new study, shark-tracking scientists or it's sister-asaecology cruises, in collaboration with the Department of Primary Industries, the Australian Marine Science University, the Marine Institute and the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Townsville have discovered Sharkcola, the name given to the aquatic community thriving in active volcanoes.
Finding Sharkcola
Researchers have been tagging sharks to follow their seasonal resting and food preferences by timing their release from the net. Every two weeks, Shadrake and Maehrs embarked on a chronology project, using a low-definition transmitter to track the movements of live sharks from remote locations.
The low-definition transmitter revealed that sharks feed during the day. The group also discovered that the winter meditation period for the more active group took place in March or April. Each of the Atlantic white and black tip reef sharks within the study starts migrating in spring.
There are only four known large species of whale sharks living in New South Wales, Australia, marked shown in the map below. Find out more about our studying the aquatic life in our rivers and lakes.
Seizing opportunity
Shark cola was discovered on Kavachi on the afternoon of January 30 before the magnificent calving event of the two largest whale shark species, the NJMD and the NJMW (Wave Fronted Monster Whale).
The cool and sunny conditions in the gigantic caldera attracted sharks. What saltwater biologist Ashleigh Maehrs as been able to infer from the photographic evidence is that the shark food resource got priority over other water format that are conducive to major forage fish.
"These sharks hold on to their young and live in volcanic environments, so in order for sharks to do this they need an abundance of prey," Maehrs said.
Feeding and socializing
Nathaniel Sailor
The conditions in Dr Bengtson's immersion pool led to great interest in the project. Instead of preparing these extremely nutritious sharkly nutritious forage fish for us, sharks really preferred freshly caught tuna from shallow waters, while their more intermediate market relatives preferred carrots they had cleaned from prawn farms. It was a fascinating finding.
Maehrs said that the discovery exemplified the tricky balancing act of out-competing predators and parasites, but more likely facilitating their food foraging and social interaction. Bengtson said that sharks could in fact play a positive role in replenishing the fish market' waters of the
Forget “Sharknado” — there is a real-life Sharkcano!
In a new study, shark-tracking scientists or it's sister-asaecology cruises, in collaboration with the Department of Primary Industries, the Australian Marine Science University, the Marine Institute and the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Townsville have discovered Sharkcola, the name given to the aquatic community thriving in active volcanoes.
Finding Sharkcola
Researchers have been tagging sharks to follow their seasonal resting and food preferences by timing their release from the net. Every two weeks, Shadrake and Maehrs embarked on a chronology project, using a low-definition transmitter to track the movements of live sharks from remote locations.
The low-definition transmitter revealed that sharks feed during the day. The group also discovered that the winter meditation period for the more active group took place in March or April. Each of the Atlantic white and black tip reef sharks within the study starts migrating in spring.
There are only four known large species of whale sharks living in New South Wales, Australia, marked shown in the map below. Find out more about our studying the aquatic life in our rivers and lakes.
Seizing opportunity
Shark cola was discovered on Kavachi on the afternoon of January 30 before the magnificent calving event of the two largest whale shark species, the NJMD and the NJMW (Wave Fronted Monster Whale).
The cool and sunny conditions in the gigantic caldera attracted sharks. What saltwater biologist Ashleigh Maehrs as been able to infer from the photographic evidence is that the shark food resource got priority over other water format that are conducive to major forage fish.
"These sharks hold on to their young and live in volcanic environments, so in order for sharks to do this they need an abundance of prey," Maehrs said.
Feeding and socializing
Nathaniel Sailor
The conditions in Dr Bengtson's immersion pool led to great interest in the project. Instead of preparing these extremely nutritious sharkly nutritious forage fish for us, sharks really preferred freshly caught tuna from shallow waters, while their more intermediate market relatives preferred carrots they had cleaned from prawn farms. It was a fascinating finding.
Maehrs said that the discovery exemplified the tricky balancing act of out-competing predators and parasites, but more likely facilitating their food foraging and social interaction. Bengtson said that sharks could in fact play a positive role in replenishing the fish market' waters of the
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