It turns out, the range of the migration of blacktip sharks is stretching further and further north, and in bigger numbers.

For the past several years, the range of the migration of blacktip sharks is stretching further and further north, and in bigger numbers. It turns out, it’s very closely correlated to the water temperature.

That’s not to say that rising ocean temperatures is what’s causing the shark migrations to move northwards. It’s extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact causative relationship between the shark movement and climate change. However, a wealth of other studies have shown that rising water temperatures promote plankton growth, and certain lab-based experiments with invertebrates show better fitness at certain temperatures (you’re prone to die if the water temperature is too high).

Even more astounding is that you can take the past 70 years worth of data and compare it with predictions based on the temperature parameters.

“They can increase water temperatures and what scientists have found is that as temperatures increase, various marine species will move to higher latitudes to stay within their preferred temperature.”

All of this leads to a need for more data. That’s why Beth is raising funds to purchase more shark transmitters to gather data. With the additional transmitters, they hope to tag females sharks to also answer the question of where the females go before the mating season.

A radio tag receiver can detect when a tagged shark swims by and record that data.

The lab also has receivers ready to be deployed out into the ocean. When a shark with a transmitter tag swims close to a receiver, it will record the sharks identity, the time, water temperature, and a whole host of other metadata that will be useful for painting a picture of who, what, when, where, and why for that particular shark.

In cooperation with several park authorities, they’ll be looking to set up receivers hooked up to batteries and a cell signal. When a shark swims by, the receiver will be able to transmit that data point to a computer far away. With enough receivers spread around the Florida coast, it will create a real-time map of the populations of the blacktip sharks. Not just sharks, they’ll be able to track any marine creature that’s been tagged by other scientists too.

Stephen and Beth plan to make this data pipeline freely available to the public, but they need funding for more transmitters first.