Why did the great white shark cross the northern Pacific Ocean ? It may sound like the beginning of some unfit environmental gag , but it ’s exactly what researchers have been asking themselves for more than a decade . Now , they conceive they may have some answers .
Every class , a tumid group of sharks who unremarkably call the California sea-coast rest home migrate to the open ocean midway between Baja California and Hawaii in a Colorado - sized region dub theWhite Shark Café . But why they would depart the nutritious - dense waters , filled with muckle of seals and sea lion to get fatty on , for the ostensibly barren 260 - kilometer - wide ( 160 - mile ) pelagic wasteland was a mystery for marine scientist from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Stanford University . So , the team tagged three 12 blank shark with satellite pop - up tracker and conform to them out to sea during their April migration .
On their way to the café , the sharks were register make dives of up to 915 meters ( 3,000 feet ) by using ardent currents to assist move down the water column . Once they reach their destination around late winter and early spring , the sharks begin to “ spring honkytonk ” in V - shapes , dive to 100 - 200 beat ( 330 - 650 feet ) at Nox . During the day , the sharks plunge as deep as 450 meters ( ~1,450 feet ) where the H2O is cold and low-down in oxygen . The issue , yet to published in a compeer - reviewed study , are surprising .
“ It ’s the largest migration of animals on Earth – a upright migration that ’s clock with the lightsome round , ” researcher Salvador Jorgensen told theSan Francisco Chronicle . “ During the day they go just below where there is light and at night they come up nearer the surface to affectionate , more productive waters under the cover of dark . ”
Located 1,200 nautical miles east of Hawaii at theNorth Pacific Subtropical Gyre , one of the large biome on the planet , the neighborhood is influence by California ’s current ( which carry cold , nutrient - full-bodied waters south along the US west coast ) and by equatorial upwelling from the south that make for productivity .
While satellite figure of speech show a nutrient - pathetic landscape , the sharks ’ conduct differentiate a different narrative about what lurks underneath – presumably big groups of phytoplankton , fish , calamari , and jellyfish that they are feeding on . Since more than 40 percent of the world ’s ocean are open , the research worker say biological testing ground such as the café could be primal to understanding climate change and environmental version and response .
“ We now have a gilded mine of data . We have double the current 20 - year information set on clean shark diving behaviors and environmental preferences in just three weeks , ” said marine scientist Barbara Block .
[ H / T : San Francisco Chronicle ]
