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Great White Shark RFID/Satellite Tracking Shows Long Journeys, Many Beach Visits
Lucas123 writes "Marine biologists from OCEARCH, a non-profit shark research project, have been tagging scores of great whites and other shark species with an array of wireless technologies, gathering granular data on the sharks over the past year or more. For example, Mary Lee, a great white shark that's the same weight and nearly the same length as a Buick, was tagged off of Cape Cod and has made beach visits up and down the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda. She came so close to beaches that the research team alerted local authorities. The team attaches an array of acoustic and satellite tags as well as accelerometers to the sharks, which collect more than 100 data points every second — 8.5 million data points per day. The data has provided a detailed, three-dimensional view of the shark's behavior, which the team has been sharing in real time on its website. OCEARCH plans to expand that data sharing over the next few weeks to social networks and classrooms."
Just curious.
I'm not looking for a sideline as I don't know how to swim; or at least, there is no evidence that I know how to swim.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
You mean that I actually have frickin' sharks with frickin' RFIDs on their heads??
...before they start doing this to us!
+1 for Paranoia.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
When will they start mounting lasers?!
The name is pretty stupid, but the research is cool. Shows what electronics can do these days.
I like the public interaction, too: classroom interaction and such can make people interested, and make them more willing to contribute money to research. It's a win-win.
Also good that they warned people on beaches. I'm not sure if it's bordering on hysteria, but they probably know what they're doing.
Disclaimer: I've chatted with one of the researchers connected to this project on IRC from time to time, and posted on their forums once or twice. I have no other connection to them, and make no financial gain from these statements. I was fucked in the ass by a shark yesterday.
it's a nice web site for shark fisherman :D
http://xkcd.com/585/
I want to say something witty funny or insightful but this is just cool.
scif channel can use extras in a B movie with sharks.
How long before the Federal Government mandates such granular tracking on vehicles, guns, kitchen knives, and people?
sudo make me a sandwich
It's like convention goers at Vegas cruising the all-you-can-eat buffets..."I don't like the quality of mammals at this beach, honey, they taste too gamey. How about we try that cozy little cove over there instead?"
"I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
swallow you whole.
what., you didn't think I would go with the bigger boat quote, did you?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Think of all the disasters that the research team averted by alerting authorities that a shark was close to the shore! It would have been a blood bath for sure!
(Marine biologists Hudson, Ripley, Hicks and Vasquez at a remote outpost)
Hudson: We have movement. Signal's clean. Range, 20 meters.
Ripley: They've found a way in, something we've missed.
Hicks: We didn't miss anything.
Hudson: 17 meters.
Ripley: [Checking the tracker] Something under the floor, not in the plans, I don't know.
Hudson: 15 meters.
Hicks: Definitely inside the barricades.
Newt: Let's go.
Hudson: 12 meters.
Ripley: That's right outside the door. Hicks, Vasquez get back.
Hudson: Man, this is a big fuckin' signal.
Hicks: How are we doing Vasquez, talk to me?
Vasquez: Almost there.
[They welded the door shut, and stepped back away from the door]
Vasquez: There right on us.
Hicks: [Waiting for the Aliens] Remember, short controlled bursts.
Hudson: 9 meters. 7. 6.
Ripley: That can't be; that's inside the room.
Hudson: It's reading right man, look!
Hicks: Then you're not reading *it* right.
Hudson: 5 meters, man. 4. What the hell?
I think it's amazing how far-ranging the sharks are. It's interesting that it swims in a wide circle that includes Bermuda. How did it navigate to the island? How did it find its way back to the mainland? I would have expected a much more meandering course, but it's almost like it made a bee-line for it and then another bee-line back to the coast, but in the opposite direction.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
sharkdotted
---------- ovidius naso
...according to the map, probably not a bad idea (for a bunch of reasons).
I guess that Shark Psychology is not a subject thats been studied much due to the intractability of the subjects and difficulty of objectively assessing their actions. Is it at all possible, however, that either by electromagnetic or psychological effects the tagging of a shark changes its behaviour? It strikes me that all the data discussed in the article is info about sharks that have been tagged by people.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
So, I searched a bit around the interwebz for the hardware specs and couldnt find anything.
What sensors are they using specifically. What kind of GPS location services? I mean, its not exactly cheap to send a signal into space from a fin... Gotta have service in the middle of the ocean.
What kind of energy suppy? Something rechargable from water flow? Who build the gizzmo?
Whats with the accoustic ping thingy? Where are the recievers? How many are there? Who maintains them?
Double the funny, because the name makes you think their mandate is to preserve the right to bear sharks. Right to bare sharks?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I love you guys. I'm spinning up extra capacity for sharks-ocearch.verite.com as we speak. So sorry for the slowness. Thanks for stopping by!
These guys were in a documentary series "Shark Wranglers", shown a while back on cable. They were hand tagging sharks on a platform, after hooking them on line with a large hunk of smelly fish on the hook. Cool dudes doing pretty cool work.
"Buick" is a little vague... are we talking a 1975 Electra, or a 2012 Verano?
As is Radio-Fish Identification? Now that's just cool.
PS: Before you tear me to pieces (ha, ha, ha, I kill me...), sharks are indeed considered fish, or so the internets tells me.
Other tags include an RFID implant whose ping is picked up whenever the shark passes a special, underwater buoy
As usual, science journalist make up stuff. There's nothing on the ocearch.org about RFID, because these ID tags don't use RF. They are acoustic tags. The popup dorsal fin transmitter uses RF, but only when it's above the water. Radio waves do not penetrate salt water far enough to be of any use.
There is one dangrously close to Cape Cod beaches right now! Quick, call the authorities! Please disregard the fact that 99.99% of sharks is not tagged and there is a number of them near beaches at all times.
The size of a Buick? I've seen Buicks in China that were compact hatchbacks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Excelle_XT
Analog Devices has an expanding portfolio of Embedded Processors, DSPs and Analog Microcontrollers for a wide variety of general-purpose and application-specific needs.
Blackfin, SHARC, SigmaDSP, TigerSHARC, ADSP-21xx and Precision Analog Microcontrollers a broad range of functions including high speed, multi-DSP signal processing, converged signal/control processing, fixed-function processing and microcontroller applications.
The SHARC® Processor family dominates the floating-point DSP market with exceptional core and memory performance and outstanding I/O throughput. For as little as 319 MFLOPS/dollar, SHARC brings floating-point processing performance to applications where dynamic range is key.
Thusly, SHARC data is actually procured by Analog Devices product in a straightforward fashion and then is sent to the satellites in orbits over earth. Locations are found frequently near beaches and such.
avoided the jersey shore by a good distance
I don't know what size a Buick is having never seen one, being from 'the rest of the world'. Can we have a metric equivalent? Elephants, Panda, London Bus, Eiffel Tower, anchovy, red kidney bean, Austin Ambassador (British Leyland Princess, Y reg). Thanks
I'm glad they don't have the great whites tagged here
Outreach.
(I'm stunned nobody has posted this link before me.)
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/quotes-from-the-movie-jaws-in-which-shark-is-replaced-by-jimmy-page
You should add frikkin lasers as well.
They should do this with whales as well, this would greatly improve the quality of Japanese whale 'research'!
They're gonna need a bigger boat...
Most of those locations appear to be near the shore, only if you define "near" as "within a few miles".
However, I did notice rather a lot of dots clustered around Mossel Bay, South Africa, including one that was so close that I could still see it on the map when zoomed in close enough to see individual houses. Yikes!
I think the explanation is probably the Seal Preserve there. Seals are known to be the Great White's favorite food. After seeing that, if it were me, I'd consider avoiding any beach that has seals nearby.
How about fixing your site?
It looks like every shark is labeled as Carcharodon carcharias(Great White), but many of these are described as bull Sharks, Makos, etc. Faulty data. If you can't even get the type of shark right I don't trust ANY of your other data.
On of the sharks shows as being tagged in Cape Cod, but the comments say that it was tagged in Jacksonville FL and that you are "working" to get that corrected. How much work does it take? You could have fixed the location field just as easily as writing a comment to explain it.
The site looks really good and these guys are doing some interesting stuff, but blatantly inaccurate data makes me write the site off as a useless toy.
Enjoy your short lived page views.