Sharks are celebrated as fierce ocean predators and marveled at their villainous roles in films such as "Jaws" and "Sharknado." But this year, sharks can be portrayed more as the heroes, because they are being deployed to help forecast hurricanes.
Researchers at the University of Delaware and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have equipped sharks with sensors that will detect vital information about the Atlantic Ocean's temperature and salinity.
By attaching sensor tags on the predators, researchers are examining how sharks can assist in collecting ocean data for better hurricane forecasts. The sharks are expected to collect temperature and other data that is difficult or costly to obtain elsewhere.
Each year, when hurricane season draws near, NOAA teams up with the University of Delaware and other Mid-Atlantic colleges to send gliders to the continental shelf to collect crucial data. The underwater gliders function effectively, but they are slow and expensive to maintain. The tagged shark are capable of gathering that information more efficiently.
"By attaching these tags ... to sharks, which are wide-ranging, mobile predators, we will be able to observe a much larger part of the ocean that typically remains unobserved," said marine ecologist Aaron Carlisle of the University of Delaware in an email to USA TODAY.
