Stephan Savoia / AP
Captain Brett McBride streams seawater over the gills of a nearly 15-foot, 2,292-pound great white shark on the research vessel Ocearch in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Chatham, Mass. A crew of researchers and fishermen are tagging great white sharks off Cape Cod in an unorthodox way. The Ocearch team baits the fish and leads them onto a lift, tagging and taking blood, tissue and semen samples up close from the world's most feared predator. The real-time satellite tag tracks the shark each time its dorsal fin breaks the surface, plotting its location on a map.
Stephan Savoia / AP
Scientists collect blood and tissue samples from a female great white shark on the research vessel Ocearch in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Chatham, Mass. Before release, the nearly 15-foot, 2,292-pound shark was named Genie for famed shark researcher Eugenie Clark. The Ocearch team baits the fish and leads them onto a lift, tagging and taking blood, tissue and semen samples up close from the world's most feared predator. The real-time satellite tag tracks the shark each time its dorsal fin breaks the surface, plotting its location on a map.
Stephan Savoia / AP
Researchers screw satellite and acoustic tags onto the dorsal fin of a great white shark on the research vessel Ocearch in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Chatham, Mass. Once released, the tags will track the location and speed of the nearly 15-foot, 2,292-pound Genie, named for famed shark researcher Eugenie Clark.
Stephan Savoia / AP
Ocearch Captain Brett McBride, right, and Co-Captain Jody Whitworth tie strips of fish to a reinforced cooler containing whale blubber in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Chatham, Mass. The cooler is attached to a cage containing whale blubber on the ocean floor in hopes of attracting great white sharks. The Ocearch team baits the fish and leads them onto a lift, tagging and taking blood, tissue and semen samples up close from the world's most feared predator. The real-time satellite tag tracks the shark each time its dorsal fin breaks the surface, plotting its location on a map.
From AP : CHATHAM, Mass. - The scientists and fishermen on board the Ocearch, a repurposed crabbing vessel, received word that their scouting boat had hooked a great white shark, sparking a flurry of activity.
They were about to get up close and personal with the animal, more than 2,000 pounds and nearly 15 feet long.
"I'm nervous," said state shark expert Greg Skomal, who has tagged great whites, but never like this, never this close.
The Ocearch crew tags great white sharks in an unorthodox way. Unlike Skomal's team, which has tagged a dozen great whites off the Massachusetts coast with harpoons, Chris Fischer's Ocearch crew baits the fish and leads them onto a large platform that lifts them out of the water for tagging and collecting blood, tissue and semen samples. Continue reading this story here.
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