Sharks are often viewed as threatening by most people, with the image of a menacing shark fin racing through the ocean in search of its next meal being a common one. However, it is actually the shark that is in danger.

Defenders of Wildlife, a national nonprofit organization focused on safeguarding imperiled species, reports that up to 75% of shark species are at risk of extinction. Furthermore, as many as 73 million sharks are killed annually for their fins.

Shark breeding grounds that were considered safe havens have also been impacted. And the fact that sharks take a long time to get pregnant, have few babies, and reach adulthood late in life makes it hard to bring them back.

It presents a challenge.

Authors James Sulikowski (an ASU professor) and Neil Hammerschlag (a marine biologist at the University of Miami) describe a novel technique they invented that can remotely capture the location and time of birth of shark pups in a report published today in Science Advances. Researchers may use this information to safeguard sharks’ birthing grounds, one of their most endangered environments.

A senior Global Futures scientist at Arizona State University and director of the Sulikowski Shark and Fish Conservation Lab in the university’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, James Sulikowski explains “If they (the mother sharks) don’t have that suitable habitat, then their babies won’t be able to grow up. And if babies don’t grow up, we have no more sharks and literally, the ocean ecosystem would collapse.” 

The instrument is causing a stir in the scientific world, and for good cause.

“We’ve been trying to do this since we started studying sharks. This is our holy grail. We have really advanced shark science, 20, 30, 40 years,” adds Sulikowski. “This novel, satellite-based technology will be especially valuable for the protection of threatened and endangered shark species, where protection of pupping and nursery grounds is a conservation priority.” 

The paper talks about the placement and results of an intrauterine satellite tag on two sharks, a scalloped hammerhead and a tiger shark, to find out when they give birth. These tags are called “birth-alert-tags” (BAT) because they alert researchers when sharks give birth.

This is how BAT works.

A pregnant shark receives the BAT first. The technology is around two inches long and one inch wide. The BAT emerges with the pups when the shark gives birth and swims to the ocean’s surface. Once there, the gadget enters transmitter mode and starts transmitting signals announcing the birth’s time and location.

The BAT has already produced outstanding outcomes. Scientists used to think that sand sharks had their babies on land, but now they know that they prefer to have their babies in shipwrecks on the ocean floor.

“It was a total surprise,” Sulikowski remarks. “For most shark species we have no idea where they give birth or how far they must travel to habitats that are essential to their survival.”

Once habitats are found, efforts will be made to protect them, either by making new sanctuaries or by adding to the ones that already exist.

The end goal for the BAT is to spread all over the world.

Sulikowski wants to get scientists from all over the world to work together to find shark habitats and figure out how to protect them.

Source: 10.1126/sciadv.add6340

Image Credit: Getty