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Since Receiving Satellite Tags, Some Sharks Have Become Stars of Social Media

Posted by samzenpus on from the just-when-you-thought-it-was-safe-to-tweet-in-the-water dept.

Lucas123 writes: A research project that tags the world's most dangerous sharks with four different tracking devices and then offers all the data to the public has taken off, garnering hundreds of thousands of users; one shark even has more then 80,000 followers on Twitter. OCEARCH, a non-profit shark tracking project, has tagged about 130 sharks, from great whites and tigers to hammerheads and makos, and open sourced the data in the hope that it will create citizen scientists who will follow the animals and care about what happens to them. To further personify the apex predators, the researchers at OCEARCH have also given the sharks names such as Katharine and Mary Lee, two sharks that are more than 14 feet long and weight more than a ton. OCEARCH's shark tracker has garnered 10 times the traffic it had last year, and it's expected to grow 20 times more by the end of this year. Along with data from satellite, acoustic and accelerometer tags, the project expects to begin using big data analytics to offer more granular data about the animals and their lives to scientists and the public at large.

31 comments

  1. Probably more valuable than ... by plover · · Score: 3, Informative

    ... following Kim Kardashian.

    --
    John
  2. shark privacy protection by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    c'mon PETA. where you at?

  3. Simple folks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Damn man, some people can be entertained by anything.

    1. Re:Simple folks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This isn't just anything, its spying.

  4. Holy Hell by sexconker · · Score: 1

    Those are some long, shitty, fucked up sentences, Batman. And why would you start out the summary with the pronoun ("a research project") instead of the proper noun and definition ("OCEARCH, a non-profit shark tracking project")? And then there are the fucking errors ("a online and mobile apps"), which can't be blamed on having shitty style.

    Lrn 2 Engrish plox?

    1. Re:Holy Hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And why would you start out the summary with the pronoun ("a research project")

      Being a native speaker and all, my English rules may be a bit fuzzy, but this is not a pronoun, right?

    2. Re:Holy Hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "A" is not a pronoun, it's an article you insensitive clod.

  5. Do they anthropomorphize them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OZ465424_Oz_the_Shark

    Checkin out Malibu, saw @kanyewest. #BlackLivesAreTasty #Omnomnom. Back to the OBX next season. Watch out ladies!

  6. Shark social media by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    Just ate a seal. ROOFLOL.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Shark social media by Neo-Rio-101 · · Score: 3

      I'm a SHAAARRK! I'm A SHAAARRRRK! Suck my dick, I'm a SHARK!

      --
      READY.
      PRINT ""+-0
    2. Re:Shark social media by fisted · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Oho, someone forgot to tick the AC checkbox...

      --
      CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
    3. Re:Shark social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Left or right dick?

  7. On the Internet of Beings, by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

    Warhol's Entitlement isn't just for people anymore.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  8. Shark Attack Live! by pubwvj · · Score: 1

    And now, live on SharkCam 3 is a swimmer being eaten!

  9. Sharks vs the social media rules by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    As sharks move onto social media, what about the Facebook requirement for use of real names? Dating sites will require that they be honest about reporting weight in their profiles, with any documented bad habits ("Eats surfers").

  10. Not Dangerous by youngone · · Score: 2
    Sharks aren't really all that dangerous. They kill a tiny fraction of the number of people Hippos kills for instance, and if you really want to worry about an animal, mosquitos kill something like 1 million people every year.

    The worrying thing to me is that because Chinese people like shark's fin soup, humanity is going to kill every shark in the oceans, probably in my life time, making the oceans shark free for the first time in 400 million years.

    We ought to be worried.

    1. Re:Not Dangerous by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 1

      Wall sockets aren't dangerous either. Until you take the face plate off and stick your finger in there.

      You might not have a problem with it, but for me personally, I'm not going to go play on the sharks dinner table, at dinner time.

    2. Re:Not Dangerous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your obviously not Australian. Every Australian is taught from a young age how to disable a shark. You either punch them so hard the go into shock, or you rub their belly until they pass out and float upside down. Every child aged 5 or above is taken down to the ocean each year and has to prove these two competencies on nearby sharks.

      Sharks aren't really feared that much in Australia. Your more likely to be killed by bees, hippos, peanut butter, snakes or depression.

    3. Re:Not Dangerous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes, because sharks are very important to balance out the marine ecosystem (more so than for example great cats for land ecosystems) , and with their very low reproductive rate, they are very hard to keep at a sustainable level.

    4. Re:Not Dangerous by edremy · · Score: 1

      Your story is clearly false, as any child taken into the water to try and tame sharks would be quickly killed by box jellyfish, stonefish or any of the hundreds of other immensely poisonous animals in Australia that want nothing more than tasty human flesh to dine on.

      --
      "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
    5. Re:Not Dangerous by operagost · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure they don't eat every species of shark, and even if they did, there aren't enough people eating shark fin soup to eat them all. It's become unfashionable. It's also illegal in places like the US to "fin" sharks; they have to take the entire shark, which makes it a lot more sustainable and less wasteful.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    6. Re:Not Dangerous by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      Do not underestimate the ability for certain cultures to cause species endangerment through some idea that it is fashionable or somehow medicinal. That's why rhinos and elephants have been facing critical existence failure.

    7. Re:Not Dangerous by youngone · · Score: 1

      Those comments are wrong, https://www.google.co.nz/searc... The US has no control over most of the World's oceans, so it's policies on finning are irrelevant. Shark's Fin soup has not become less popular in China, but more, it's a status symbol, and as the Chinese middle class grows, so does the demand.

  11. The shark from Jaws was big back in the BBS era by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But he lost all credibility after that terrible SeaWorld act where he would leap over actor Henry Winkler.

  12. Come on by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Enough stories about the Republican candidates already.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  13. Social media sharks are for cows. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are all cows. Cows say moo. MOOOOOOOOOOO! MOOOOOOOOO! Moo cows MOOOOOOOO! Moo say the cows. YOU COWS!!

  14. Obligatory xkcd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://xkcd.com/585/

    Captcha: absurd

  15. Who monitored this shark? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess the shark at JBay that attacked Mick Fanning wasn't monitored. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrt27dZ7DOA

  16. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  17. Are any following people named Brody? by lquam · · Score: 1

    We need to put trackers on anyone named Brody and see if any sharks are following them around, because, y'know, that family has terrible luck with sharks.