OCEARCH Research Shows Sharks Are Misunderstood
While most of us may use our GPS systems to navigate safely to the new restaurant in town, the researchers at Ocearch use GPS technology to track sharks and their swimming patterns.
Chris Fischer, former star of History Channel’s reality TV show “Shark Wranglers,” founded Ocearch to track Great White sharks and educate the public on the swimming patterns of sharks. By doing so, he hopes to alleviate the public’s misunderstood fear of sharks, which possibly began when Steven Spielberg released the famous movie, Jaws.
Ocearch’s methods are professional and efficient. In just fifteen minutes they are able to catch a great white shark, run tests on it, tag the honing device in the shark’s dorsal fin, and release it back into the ocean.
Their most recent shark volunteer is 3,500 pound Mary Lee, who with the help of this honing device will show up as a green, blue or orange dot on a monitor. The dots are color-coded to differentiate how long ago the sharks were tagged. Fischer and other researchers note that most sharks’ swimming patterns are driven by their mating instincts.
Fischer is pleased with Mary Lee’s recent trek tracking progress. According to Fischer, “[Mary Lee] has cruised the entire length of the eastern seaboard on the beach… and nothing has happened right? That is a perfect example of let’s talk about this explorer rather than fear.”
This is a fantastic example of how far our GPS satellite tracking technology has expanded. Ocearch’s has shown us that GPS technology can be used as an excellent research tool, particularly since we have limited ability to explore the ocean’s vast depths.
Sharks are not necessarily movie monsters in the making. They just have their own behavioral patterns on which they rely, even if they do admittedly seem terrifying.
