Latest news with #AaronCarlisle
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Sharknado? The next generation of hurricane forecasters could be sharks
Researchers are deploying an unlikely ally in the effort to improve hurricane forecasting. Three sharks fitted with sensors are swimming in warm Atlantic Ocean waters to collect critical hurricane data, a contrast to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's usual flying Hurricane Hunters in the skies. 'The ocean is so huge, so enormous, that it's just inaccessible to anything, for the most part,' Aaron Carlisle, a University of Delaware marine ecologist leading the effort, told The Washington Post. 'But by instrumenting the animals that live out there,' he said, 'you can basically turn them into these ocean sensors that are constantly collecting data.' The sharks are collecting information on water conductivity and temperature. Record sea surface temperatures have fueled particularly large and strong hurricanes in recent years. The temperatures are the result of a warming planet and human-caused climate change. It's unclear whether the sharks will ever get close to the cyclones. But, by monitoring the temperature, the scientists can better understand what the U.S. is in for each hurricane season, including where the hurricanes will go and if they're supercharged. Sharks, a keystone species and an apex predator, have a unique access to data that has been hard to get. Weather satellites are unable to see past the ocean's surface and the robotic gliders that scientists send to the continental shelf are effective but slow and expensive to maintain. The tags on the sharks have the ability to collect that data more efficiently. Two mako sharks are tagged to measure temperature, depth, and conductivity. A white shark has a satellite tag to help evaluate if the species could be a good candidate for similar tagging in the future. They may also test hammerheads and whale sharks. 'Sharks are faster than [robotic] gliders. They can stay out for longer periods of time,' Caroline Wiernicki, a shark ecologist and Ph.D student working with Carlisle, told The Post. 'So the hope is that we can have these sharks go out and work in concert' with existing monitors, she said. The research is being led by Carlisle and fellow University of Delaware professor Matt Oliver. They are working with the NOAA's Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System – the regional arm of the agency's Integrated Ocean Observing System program. In the future, the plan is to tag dozens of sharks a year and feed that data into hurricane computer models. So far, Carlisle told The Post that one of the two sharks has relayed temperature data back to them, but the other has been swimming in water too shallow for the sensor to turn on. The researchers said that they chose the makos because they often return to the surface, allowing the tags to send the data to satellites for the scientists to retrieve. Able to reach swimming speeds of over 40 miles per hour, shortfin makos are the fastest sharks in the ocean. Following a review, NOAA said in 2022 that it would not list them as a threatened or endangered species. They are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Right now, one in three species of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction. Overfishing has driven global shark and ray numbers down by more than 70 percent since the 1970s, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The charity notes that humans kill around 190 sharks per minute and 100 million sharks each year in commercial fisheries. The researchers explained to USA Today that they did not expect the sensors to have much harmful impact on their test subjects and that they undergo a thorough permitting and review process. 'We do everything we can to minimize the impact of puncturing the animals' fins,' Carlisle told The Post. 'We all love the animals, so we don't want to hurt them.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Sharknado? The next generation of hurricane forecasters could be sharks
Researchers are deploying an unlikely ally in the effort to improve hurricane forecasting. Three sharks fitted with sensors are swimming in warm Atlantic Ocean waters to collect critical hurricane data, a contrast to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's usual flying Hurricane Hunters in the skies. 'The ocean is so huge, so enormous, that it's just inaccessible to anything, for the most part,' Aaron Carlisle, a University of Delaware marine ecologist leading the effort, told The Washington Post. 'But by instrumenting the animals that live out there,' he said, 'you can basically turn them into these ocean sensors that are constantly collecting data.' The sharks are collecting information on water conductivity and temperature. Record sea surface temperatures have fueled particularly large and strong hurricanes in recent years. The temperatures are the result of a warming planet and human-caused climate change. It's unclear whether the sharks will ever get close to the cyclones. But, by monitoring the temperature, the scientists can better understand what the U.S. is in for each hurricane season, including where the hurricanes will go and if they're supercharged. Sharks, a keystone species and an apex predator, have a unique access to data that has been hard to get. Weather satellites are unable to see past the ocean's surface and the robotic gliders that scientists send to the continental shelf are effective but slow and expensive to maintain. The tags on the sharks have the ability to collect that data more efficiently. Two mako sharks are tagged to measure temperature, depth, and conductivity. A white shark has a satellite tag to help evaluate if the species could be a good candidate for similar tagging in the future. They may also test hammerheads and whale sharks. 'Sharks are faster than [robotic] gliders. They can stay out for longer periods of time,' Caroline Wiernicki, a shark ecologist and Ph.D student working with Carlisle, told The Post. 'So the hope is that we can have these sharks go out and work in concert' with existing monitors, she said. The research is being led by Carlisle and fellow University of Delaware professor Matt Oliver. They are working with the NOAA's Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System – the regional arm of the agency's Integrated Ocean Observing System program. In the future, the plan is to tag dozens of sharks a year and feed that data into hurricane computer models. So far, Carlisle told The Post that one of the two sharks has relayed temperature data back to them, but the other has been swimming in water too shallow for the sensor to turn on. The researchers said that they chose the makos because they often return to the surface, allowing the tags to send the data to satellites for the scientists to retrieve. Able to reach swimming speeds of over 40 miles per hour, shortfin makos are the fastest sharks in the ocean. Following a review, NOAA said in 2022 that it would not list them as a threatened or endangered species. They are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Right now, one in three species of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction. Overfishing has driven global shark and ray numbers down by more than 70 percent since the 1970s, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The charity notes that humans kill around 190 sharks per minute and 100 million sharks each year in commercial fisheries. The researchers explained to USA Today that they did not expect the sensors to have much harmful impact on their test subjects and that they undergo a thorough permitting and review process. 'We do everything we can to minimize the impact of puncturing the animals' fins,' Carlisle told The Post. 'We all love the animals, so we don't want to hurt them.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Sharknado? The next generation of hurricane forecasters could be sharks
Researchers are deploying an unlikely ally in the effort to improve hurricane forecasting. Three sharks fitted with sensors are swimming in warm Atlantic Ocean waters to collect critical hurricane data, a contrast to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's usual flying Hurricane Hunters in the skies. 'The ocean is so huge, so enormous, that it's just inaccessible to anything, for the most part,' Aaron Carlisle, a University of Delaware marine ecologist leading the effort, told The Washington Post. 'But by instrumenting the animals that live out there,' he said, 'you can basically turn them into these ocean sensors that are constantly collecting data.' The sharks are collecting information on water conductivity and temperature. Record sea surface temperatures have fueled particularly large and strong hurricanes in recent years. The temperatures are the result of a warming planet and human-caused climate change. It's unclear whether the sharks will ever get close to the cyclones. But, by monitoring the temperature, the scientists can better understand what the U.S. is in for each hurricane season, including where the hurricanes will go and if they're supercharged. Sharks, a keystone species and an apex predator, have a unique access to data that has been hard to get. Weather satellites are unable to see past the ocean's surface and the robotic gliders that scientists send to the continental shelf are effective but slow and expensive to maintain. The tags on the sharks have the ability to collect that data more efficiently. Two mako sharks are tagged to measure temperature, depth, and conductivity. A white shark has a satellite tag to help evaluate if the species could be a good candidate for similar tagging in the future. They may also test hammerheads and whale sharks. 'Sharks are faster than [robotic] gliders. They can stay out for longer periods of time,' Caroline Wiernicki, a shark ecologist and Ph.D student working with Carlisle, told The Post. 'So the hope is that we can have these sharks go out and work in concert' with existing monitors, she said. The research is being led by Carlisle and fellow University of Delaware professor Matt Oliver. They are working with the NOAA's Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System – the regional arm of the agency's Integrated Ocean Observing System program. In the future, the plan is to tag dozens of sharks a year and feed that data into hurricane computer models. So far, Carlisle told The Post that one of the two sharks has relayed temperature data back to them, but the other has been swimming in water too shallow for the sensor to turn on. The researchers said that they chose the makos because they often return to the surface, allowing the tags to send the data to satellites for the scientists to retrieve. Able to reach swimming speeds of over 40 miles per hour, shortfin makos are the fastest sharks in the ocean. Following a review, NOAA said in 2022 that it would not list them as a threatened or endangered species. They are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Right now, one in three species of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction. Overfishing has driven global shark and ray numbers down by more than 70 percent since the 1970s, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The charity notes that humans kill around 190 sharks per minute and 100 million sharks each year in commercial fisheries. The researchers explained to USA Today that they did not expect the sensors to have much harmful impact on their test subjects and that they undergo a thorough permitting and review process. 'We do everything we can to minimize the impact of puncturing the animals' fins,' Carlisle told The Post. 'We all love the animals, so we don't want to hurt them.'
The Herald Scotland
4 days ago
- Science
- The Herald Scotland
Hurricane researchers plan a 'fleet' of sharks to help forecasts
"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. He said it's not so much that we can't obtain these data using other means (such as vessels or autonomous vehicles), it's that those other platforms are very expensive and are limited in where they can go. In addition, "remote sensing via satellite-based sensors only looks at the surface, and it is what is going on below the surface that is really critical for many oceanographic/climate processes (such as hurricanes)." Water temps drive hurricane formation According to Carlisle, water temperature, and how it changes with depth, is what drives ocean heat content, and that is generally what drives hurricanes. He said salinity is important too, but is less critical for this particular issue in this region. Indeed, according to the National Weather Service, the first condition for hurricane formation is that ocean waters must be above 79 degrees F. "Below this threshold temperature, hurricanes will not form or will weaken rapidly once they move over water below this threshold. Ocean temperatures in the tropical East Pacific and the tropical Atlantic routinely surpass this threshold," the weather service said. What species of sharks are being used? Blue sharks and mako sharks are two of the species that were the best suited to carry these tags, due to their movement and diving characteristics. This isn't the first time animals have been used in a similar way for scientific research. Animals such as seals and narwhals have been tagged to track hard-to-reach areas in the Arctic and Antarctic, the Washington Post reports. Dolphins and whales have also been used by Russia for military purposes. Will the data captured by the sharks be used during actual hurricanes? "Yes, our goal is to have a 'fleet' of sharks carrying these tags during the hurricane season, and they will be providing real-time oceanographic data across the North Atlantic that will be fed into various ocean models that are used to predict hurricane strength, intensity, direction, etc.," Carlisle said in an e-mail. So far, his team conducted tagging experiments with the sharks in May, with some success. "As to whether the sharks will be in the actual hurricanes remains to be seen, but I suspect they will avoid them and won't be surfacing during hurricanes!" Is the goal to have the sharks deployed this year, during the 2025 season? This year, researchers are still working out bugs and are limited in the number of tags that can be deployed due to the continuing after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a huge impact on this project, Carlisle reported. "Our hope, if we obtain sufficient additional funding to keep things moving forward, is that we will be actually doing this type of work on a larger scale in 2026 (if lucky) or more likely 2027." Funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been more than satisfactory for the project so far, and Carlisle said "the agency has been incredibly supportive of us throughout this process." The teams' partner, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System, has also been helpful. NOAA budget cuts: Dramatic budget cuts at NOAA could put weather forecasts in peril, lives in danger Are the sharks harmed by having the tags attached to them? "That's a topic that we are keenly aware of in our field," Carlisle said. "Attaching anything to an animal will have some impact on the animal, but we do everything in our power to minimize any negative impacts on the animal." In addition, Carlisle and his team go through a thorough permitting and review process that ensures they do everything they can to minimize impacts on animals. Beyond that, he said they need the animals to be "happy and healthy" in order to provide the team with good data, as they are carrying very expensive equipment (each tag costs about $6,000), so if the tag has significant deleterious impacts on the animal, "we aren't just hurting the animal but we're essentially throwing the tag away." The tags will not be on the animals permanently: researchers use parts that will corrode over time, allowing the whole tag package to fall off the animal.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Science
- The Independent
Sharknado? The next generation of hurricane forecasters could be sharks
Researchers are deploying an unlikely ally in the effort to improve hurricane forecasting. Three sharks fitted with sensors are swimming in warm Atlantic Ocean waters to collect critical hurricane data, a contrast to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's usual flying Hurricane Hunters in the skies. 'The ocean is so huge, so enormous, that it's just inaccessible to anything, for the most part,' Aaron Carlisle, a University of Delaware marine ecologist leading the effort, told The Washington Post. 'But by instrumenting the animals that live out there,' he said, 'you can basically turn them into these ocean sensors that are constantly collecting data.' The sharks are collecting information on water conductivity and temperature. Record sea surface temperatures have fueled particularly large and strong hurricanes in recent years. The temperatures are the result of a warming planet and human-caused climate change. It's unclear whether the sharks will ever get close to the cyclones. But, by monitoring the temperature, the scientists can better understand what the U.S. is in for each hurricane season, including where the hurricanes will go and if they're supercharged. Sharks, a keystone species and an apex predator, have a unique access to data that has been hard to get. Weather satellites are unable to see past the ocean's surface and the robotic gliders that scientists send to the continental shelf are effective but slow and expensive to maintain. The tags on the sharks have the ability to collect that data more efficiently. Two mako sharks are tagged to measure temperature, depth, and conductivity. A white shark has a satellite tag to help evaluate if the species could be a good candidate for similar tagging in the future. They may also test hammerheads and whale sharks. 'Sharks are faster than [robotic] gliders. They can stay out for longer periods of time,' Caroline Wiernicki, a shark ecologist and Ph.D student working with Carlisle, told The Post. 'So the hope is that we can have these sharks go out and work in concert' with existing monitors, she said. The research is being led by Carlisle and fellow University of Delaware professor Matt Oliver. They are working with the NOAA's Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System – the regional arm of the agency's Integrated Ocean Observing System program. In the future, the plan is to tag dozens of sharks a year and feed that data into hurricane computer models. So far, Carlisle told The Post that one of the two sharks has relayed temperature data back to them, but the other has been swimming in water too shallow for the sensor to turn on. The researchers said that they chose the makos because they often return to the surface, allowing the tags to send the data to satellites for the scientists to retrieve. Able to reach swimming speeds of over 40 miles per hour, shortfin makos are the fastest sharks in the ocean. Following a review, NOAA said in 2022 that it would not list them as a threatened or endangered species. They are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Right now, one in three species of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction. Overfishing has driven global shark and ray numbers down by more than 70 percent since the 1970s, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The charity notes that humans kill around 190 sharks per minute and 100 million sharks each year in commercial fisheries. The researchers explained to USA Today that they did not expect the sensors to have much harmful impact on their test subjects and that they undergo a thorough permitting and review process. 'We do everything we can to minimize the impact of puncturing the animals' fins,' Carlisle told The Post. 'We all love the animals, so we don't want to hurt them.'
