For the first time, a scientific expedition is tagging white sharks in the Atlantic to determine their relationship with populations of this predator in the Mediterranean.
Scientists are about to embark on a forty-meter fishing boat, converted into a laboratory, whose mission will be to locate, capture, tag and release white sharks in the Atlantic Ocean. This is a major first, financed by the NGO Ocearch. Its founder, Chris Fischer, became famous in the USA for his participation in big-game fishing programs for the National Geographic channel, which, paradoxically, raised his awareness of the plight of the great white shark.
“Without them, the balance of the oceans is threatened”, he asserts in the columns of ‘El Pais’, to explain the motivation behind this new mission.
Spain, France and Ireland
The “Save the Med” project brings together a multidisciplinary team of Spanish, French and Irish scientists. The first cruise will take place in the Bay of Biscay, and the “M/V”, the expedition boat, will head for Great Britain and Ireland. The aim is to better understand the reproductive cycles, health and diet of white sharks, as well as their migratory routes.
Capturing and tagging a white shark in the Atlantic would be an important step towards better understanding the movements of this vulnerable species, and any interactions with specimens encountered in the Mediterranean.
Nursery and overfishing
The researchers put forward two main hypotheses. Given the number of juvenile specimens recorded in the Mediterranean in recent years, this sea could be acting as a nursery for females from the Atlantic. Alternatively, certain groups of sharks could be leaving the sea in search of prey, perhaps following the migration of tuna.
Scientific observations will continue in the Mediterranean, where the decline in white shark populations appears to be due to overfishing and a lack of regulation in certain North African countries. At global level, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List places the white shark among the vulnerable species.
Source: Sud Ouest
