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Shark Tail

November 10, 2013

Could a robotic vehicle follow a live, moving shark in the ocean? Engineers in WHOI’s Oceanographic Systems Lab took up that challenge, creating a system called SharkCam. It allowed a torpedo-shaped autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to track and film great white sharks off Cape Cod on their home “turf.” The AUV homed into acoustic signals emitted from a tag affixed near the shark’s dorsal fin. The AUV’s computer constantly used the signals to continuously update the location of itself and its moving target. SharkCam debuted on a Discovery Channel program in November 2013 and is currently being used to track great white sharks in clear waters off Guadalupe, Mexico. (Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)