Sharks trigger perfect news-storm - March 25, 2008
Sharks appear to monitor local weather conditions, and take the marine equivalent of heading for higher ground when storms threaten. Of course being in the sea this involves diving deeper to avoid the inclement weather.
This has raised the possibility in some minds of using sharks to monitor the weather.
Back in 2001 it was observed that some sharks moved into deeper water before the approach of a hurricane (research paper). Lauren Smith, a marine biologist at the University of Aberdeen, is now testing the ability of sharks to spot bad weather both with in the field monitoring and by putting dogfish into a hyperbaric chamber (press release).
“How many other students get the chance to put a shark in a chamber to study its behaviour?” she asks (Daily Mail).
The actual results of Smith’s work are (disappointingly) not revealed by the press release. This hasn’t stopped the “sharks could be used to predict the weather” headlines, and many jokes about UK weather man Michael Fish.
Some of the work done by Smith has previously been presented at conferences:
Generation 5 Data Storage Tags, GPS and Developed Methodology for Studying the Hydrostatic Pressure Environment of the Juvenile Lemon Shark (Negaprion Brevirostris)Hydrostatic Pressure Receptors and Path Integration in Crustacea and Fish
Smith’s work is pretty cool – putting sharks in a pressure chamber to see what happening is neat. However the amount of coverage the story is getting (28 stories and rising) seems down to the good headlines.
And sadly, using sharks to predict the weather just doesn’t stand up. If sharks are heading deeper due to changes in pressure, wouldn’t it be simpler to simply monitor pressure, say by watching the weather report?
Still, if anyone makes a barometer with a miniature shark inside I’ll be queuing up for one.
Image: a water-proof, independently roaming, marine barometer / NOAA
Comments
i think that it would be a good idea to use sharks to predict the weather. or atleast give it a chance, whats the worst that could happen. it doesn't work.
Posted by: Tyler Clancy | March 27, 2008 07:22 PM
The idea of predicting weather through shark behavoir is rediculous. The entire hypothesis is that they are sensing barometic pressure through its effect on the hydrostatic pressure. So lets see.....should we go out and tag sharks to measure barometric pressure by proxy or just use the cheap and accurate barometic pressure sensors we already have?
The entire idea and the press coverage is laughable.
And, oh yes, Im looking forward to the day when the weather forcast is cancelled because we cant recover our tags to get the data.
Cinderella macrofauna science.
Posted by: Adam | July 25, 2008 08:57 AM