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Images: Sharks Take 'Tunnels' into the Depths

Camrin Braun, a graduate student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in oceanography, prepares to release a recently tagged blue shark off Cape Cod. Braun uses the data from these tags to figure out sharks' movements and behavior once they’re out of sight. (Courtesy of Tane Sinclair-Taylor tanesinclair-taylor.com)

OCEARCH researchers attached two tags to Lydia’s dorsal fin. The blue tag is a SPOT (Smart Position Or Temperature) tag, which reported her location via satellite when her dorsal fin breaks the surface. The tag’s lifespan is about five years. The orange tag is a PSAT (Pop-up Satellite Archival Transmitting) tag, which recorded the depth and temperature of the water around Lydia every five minutes. The tag released from Lydia’s fin after six months, floated to the surface, and transmitted its data via satellite. The combined tag data allowed researchers at WHOI to observe how Lydia dove through eddies to reach deeper waters. (OCEARCH/Rob Snow)

Data from tagged white sharks such as Lydia give scientists a window into the movements and behaviors of these animals, which can help inform conservation and management decisions to protect the species. (OCEARCH/Rob Snow)

This map shows the tracks recorded by tags on two great white sharks: Mary Lee, tagged in September 2012, and Lydia, tagged in March 2013. Sharks can swim hundreds of miles in a day. Lydia was tracked for 4.5 years, and she the first white shark tracked crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Mary Lee also swam thousands of miles over the four years tracked here, but she preferred to stay in the western Atlantic.
(Camrin Braun/Natalie Renier, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

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