Counting krill from orbit
Make every dive count Shark Trust MD Paul Cox has an invitation for everyone to join this summer’ s Great Shark Snapshot
Counting krill from orbit
Scientists say subtle differences in the colour of seawater will enable them to count important marine species from Space. The target of this new research effort is Antarctic krill, which are just a couple of inches long and one of the most abundant and important animals on the planet. Marine wildlife- including whales, penguins, seals and seabirds – all feed on these diminutive shrimp. Analysis of exactly how the density of krill alters the colour of the ocean will, researchers say, allow them to take snapshots of krill aggregations from satellites- monitoring the population from Space.
PHOTO: BRITISH ANTARCTIC SURVEY
Make every dive count Shark Trust MD Paul Cox has an invitation for everyone to join this summer’ s Great Shark Snapshot
As the days slowly stretch out and we start to experience brief intermissions between those winter storms, we can afford ourselves a little look into what lies ahead later in 2025. Back in the summer of 2022, we launched a new( and it must be said, quite experimental) project that we called The Great Shark Snapshot. It was a simple concept: encourage people to go diving, look for sharks and tell us about it.
As it wasn’ t a disaster, we did it again in 2023, and again in 2024. And now, you’ ll be surprised to hear, we’ re putting plans together for the fourth edition. Each year on the journey we’ ve welcomed more divers from more locations across more countries. So, between now and July, we’ ll be doing our best to get more of you involved. From Plymouth to Palma, from Thailand to Tampa. If you’ re planning to go diving between 19 and 27 July, make it sharky. If you’ re not, think about changing your plans!
You might ask, what’ s the point? Well,
this isn’ t, and doesn’ t pretend to be, robust scientific research. If we get enough over the years then the data start to become useful, just as with our flagship citizen science project, Great Eggcase Hunt. Over 10,000 eggcase hunters have now recorded half a million eggcases over a 20-year period. This huge dataset gives us insights into where and when skates and some sharks are breeding. And can be a powerful tool in their conservation. Citizen science is different to research science. What it lacks in scientific method it makes up for in getting large numbers of individuals involved and engaged in finding out about the world. And it can also produce those huge volumes of data that research scientists on restricted budgets can only dream about.
Each of us can get involved, it’ s a collective thing. So do consider joining the snapshot this summer and helping us keep up the momentum. Make every dive count. www. sharktrust. org
Fishermen free whale
Two fisherman rescued a humpback whale found entangled in creel fishing gear off the coast of Skye in February. A single rope had become anchored around the tail of the humpback. The fishermen, who had Scottish Entanglement Alliance( SEA) training, were able to haul the creels to disentangle the whale, making sure it was free of all rope. Ellie MacLennan, SEA project co-ordinator at the University of Glasgow, said:“ This whale was entangled in the rope between creels. As is standard in most creel gear, this rope was buoyant and would have formed loops in the water which entangled the whale.” The Scottish Entanglement Alliance is holding ongoing trials of sinking rope, which lies flat on the seabed, in collaboration with local creel fishermen.
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PHOTO: SIMON ROGERSON |
An oceanic thresher shark photographed last summer at Malapascua, Philippines |
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