Preparing to Tag Sharks - Oceana USA
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September 19, 2010

Preparing to Tag Sharks

Oceana Latitude 2010

It’s time for the next leg of the journey: shark tagging! Dustin reports:

The Oceana Latitude is now headed South, down the west coast of Florida.

While the ship is docked in St. Petersburg for the next few days, scientists from Oceana and the National Aquarium, including Discovery Channel shark advisor Andy Dehart, will work to tag various shark species several miles offshore.

In addition to collecting basic data from each shark, the attached metal tags can provide future information on stock identity, movements and migration, abundance, age and growth, mortality, and behavior. The tags can also help identify these sharks later as those that were in the general vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, which could help to determine the long-term impacts of the oil spill on shark populations.

Oceana hopes to see several shark species, including spinner, blacktip, blacknose, dusky, lemon, bull, mako, tiger, hammerhead and bonnethead.