Sharks vs. hurricanes? Scientists say predators can help track huge storms.
Researchers are looking at how sharks can help gather ocean data for improved hurricane predictions by using sharks as freely moving ocean monitors.
It's not a schlocky TV movie or teams in a hockey game. Sharks vs. hurricanes is real science.
Researchers are looking at how sharks can help gather ocean data for improved hurricane predictions by using the predators as freely moving monitors by putting sensor tags on them. The goal is that the sharks will gather temperature and other data that will go toward improving hurricane forecasting – data that's challenging or expensive to get elsewhere.
"By attaching these tags ... to sharks, which are wide-ranging, mobile predators, we will be able to observe a much larger part of the ocean that typically remains unobserved," said marine ecologist Aaron Carlisle of the University of Delaware in an email to Paste BN.
He said it's not so much that we can't obtain such data using other means (such as vessels or autonomous vehicles), it's that those other platforms are very expensive and are limited in where they can go. In addition, "remote sensing via satellite-based sensors only looks at the surface, and it is what is going on below the surface that is really critical for many oceanographic/climate processes (such as hurricanes)."
Water temps drive hurricane formation
According to Carlisle, water temperature and how it changes with depth is what drives ocean heat content, and that is generally what drives hurricanes in the Atlantic. He said salinity is important, too, but is less crucial. Indeed, according to the National Weather Service, the first condition for hurricane formation is that ocean waters must be above 79 degrees.
"Below this threshold temperature, hurricanes will not form or will weaken rapidly once they move over water below this threshold. Ocean temperatures in the tropical East Pacific and the tropical Atlantic routinely surpass this threshold," the weather service said.
What species of sharks are being used?
Blue sharks and mako sharks are two of the species best suited to carry the sensor tags because of their movement and diving characteristics.
This isn't the first time animals have been used in a similar way for scientific research. Marine life such as seals and narwhals have been tagged to track hard-to-reach areas in the Arctic and Antarctic, The Washington Post reports. Dolphins and whales have been used by Russia for military purposes.
Will the data captured by the sharks be used during actual hurricanes?
"Our goal is to have a 'fleet' of sharks carrying these tags during the hurricane season, and they will be providing real-time oceanographic data across the North Atlantic that will be fed into various ocean models that are used to predict hurricane strength, intensity, direction, etc.," Carlisle said in an e-mail.
His team carried out tagging experiments with the sharks in May, with some success.
"As to whether the sharks will be in the actual hurricanes remains to be seen, but I suspect they will avoid them and won't be surfacing during hurricanes!"
Is the goal to have the sharks deployed this year, during the 2025 season?
This year, researchers are still working out bugs and are limited in the number of tags that can be deployed because of the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a huge impact on this project, Carlisle said.
"Our hope, if we obtain sufficient additional funding to keep things moving forward, is that we will be actually doing this type of work on a larger scale in 2026 (if lucky) or more likely 2027."
Funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been more than satisfactory for the project, and Carlisle said "the agency has been incredibly supportive of us throughout this process." The teams' partner, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System, also has been helpful.
Are the sharks harmed by having tags attached to them?
"That's a topic that we are keenly aware of in our field," Carlisle said. "Attaching anything to an animal will have some impact on the animal, but we do everything in our power to minimize any negative impacts on the animal."
In addition, Carlisle and his team go through a permitting and review process that ensures they do everything they can to minimize the effect on animals. Beyond that, he said, researchers need the animals to be "happy and healthy" to provide the team with good data, because they are carrying expensive equipment (each tag costs about $6,000). So if the tag has too much of an effect on the animal, "we aren't just hurting the animal but we're essentially throwing the tag away."
The tags will not be on the animals permanently: Researchers use parts that will corrode over time and allow the whole tag package to fall off.