Cape Cod nice white shark researchers this summer season will likely be utilizing drones to identify the apex predators off seashores, because the scientists have a look at whether or not the expertise is efficient for shark surveillance off the Cape.
This comes after a high-profile drone shark research out of California — discovering that juvenile white sharks have been near folks on 97% of the times surveyed, and nobody was bitten in the course of the 2-year drone research.
Along the Cape, scientists final summer season began to make use of drones in a pilot research.
“When water conditions are clear and nice, this is an incredible tool to study sharks and their activities off of our beaches,” Atlantic White Shark Conservancy employees scientist Megan Winton stated in the course of the conservancy’s media day on Tuesday.
“One thing we want to do is get an idea of how they’re using the nearshore waters right off our beaches with these direct observations,” Winton added of the nice whites.
This summer season, the researchers will likely be attempting to determine how efficient drones are at recognizing sharks alongside the Cape.
Many folks have proposed utilizing drones as a shark surveillance expertise at native seashores, however the concern is that sharks may disappear from sight when the Cape waters flip murky.
“Sometimes the water is clear, and it looks like the Caribbean… and sometimes it looks like chocolate milk,” Winton stated. “So nobody knows how that technology would perform in our waters.”
Australian officers have used drones for recognizing sharks off public seashores.
“Under ideal conditions, it would be great for that, but we don’t know how well it will perform here,” Winton added.
In the California 2-year drone research, the juvenile sharks got here very near folks, however merely moved round them or ignored them utterly.
The juvenile sharks have been typically noticed inside 50 yards of the place the waves break, placing surfers and stand-up paddle boarders within the closest proximity to sharks. Some sharks have been seen as shut as 2 yards from the wave break.
Winton famous that the juvenile sharks from that research are a lot smaller than the common nice white alongside the Cape. The juveniles alongside California feed on fish, and are usually not concentrating on seals just like the Cape sharks.
“It’s a similar situation in that there are a lot of white sharks close to the beach there, but it’s a different life stage, so it’s also very different,” Winton stated.
“Here in the summer and fall, there is likely a white shark somewhere around in the area when densities are highest,” she stated.
Cape sharks hunt for seals in shallow water near shore, and that has led to some shark bites on people within the final decade. In 2018, a 26-year-old man was killed by a shark at a Wellfleet seashore.
There have been no reported Cape shark bites on people since that deadly incident.
“From what we see, people appear to have changed their behavior in a lot of ways,” Winton stated. “People tend to stay closer to the shoreline it seems.”
Local researchers have tagged greater than 300 sharks, they usually have recognized greater than 600 particular person sharks which have visited the Cape. During the summer season, lifeguards are notified when tagged sharks get near the seashore, and the lifeguards get folks out of the water.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”