I honestly believe that studying sharks has to be one of the coolest jobs in the world. Absolutely terrifying, yet highly rewarding. Particularly when considering how little we actually know about our oceans. Sharks provide us with a valuable indicator not only about themselves but also about the entire ocean ecosystem. Recently, researchers have tagged and tracked 155 sharks, and with that, they made a concerning discovery while studying shark behavior.
What Concerning Discovery Did Researchers Make When Studying Shark Behavior?
Pexels image by: Los Muertos Crew
The Cooldown shares that "Researchers at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University spent five years tracking the movement patterns of migratory shark species in the Atlantic Ocean." What they found was that certain migratory species are lingering longer on the Atlantic northeast coast each year.
Specifically, over the last five years, researchers have been studying blacktip, dusky, sand tiger, sandbar, thresher, and white sharks. The outlet shares that "scientists found that ocean warming delayed the southward migration journeys of five out of six shark species by between 1 and 29 days." Based on their current findings and the estimated projection of global temperatures, scientists believe these sharks will stay in northern habitats for longer durations.
So, what makes this such a concerning discovery? First, the Cooldown shares that "warmer waters are also causing deoxygenation in deeper sea sections." That pushes sharks closer to the coastline, which in turn increases human-shark encounters. Naturally, no one wants to increase human shark encounters. Additionally, studying shark behavior and migration patterns has shown researchers that the balance in the ecosystem is off.
They argue that if sharks stay in northern territory too long, their typical prey in that region could be overhunted. Thus leading to an inability to repopulate quickly enough. Finally, rising global temperatures harm the ocean in more ways than just changing shark behavior and migration patterns. So, between increased risk of shark attack, potential endangering of certain species, and global warming, I would agree that this is indeed a concerning discovery.
