Researchers were shocked to capture a recording of a 23-foot-long basking shark being hit by a boat just hours after it was tagged with a tracking device and camera off the south-west coast of Ireland.
The collision caused the female shark to stop feeding and dive down to the seafloor, but because the tag was pre-programmed to fall off after several hours, they don't know what happened to her after that.
“This is the first ever direct observation of a ship strike on any marine megafauna that we’re aware of,” says Taylor Chapple, a shark researcher at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Centre.
“The fact that a shark we fitted our ‘Fitbit’ to was struck in this area within a few hours underlines just how vulnerable these animals are to boats and highlights the need for greater education in how to mitigate against such strikes,” said co-author Nicholas Payne, an assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin’s School of Natural Sciences.
The map below shows the basking shark's journey after it was tagged. The orange square, at right, depicts where the basking shark was tagged; the blue line shows the shark's route while feeding with the tag attached; the red diamond marks where the shark was struck by the boat; the yellow line marks the shark's travel after the strike. The orange box on the left shows where the tag was released from the animal.
Words: Melissa Hobson
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