Here ’s a new detail to tot into the plaster bandage of your abstruse ocean nightmares : sharks with television camera .
In afirst - of - its - sort projection , scientists at the University of Hawaii and the University of Tokyo affix flashlight - sized camera onto the Little Phoebe of inscrutable - sea sharks . The equipment functioned at depth up to 6500 foot , and every 30 seconds a strobe would scud to illuminate the sour water system before the camera took a photo . detector made preeminence of the temperature of the water and the depth , and an accelerometer and a magnetometer take reading as well .
At a set date and time the alloy band on the camera broke off and float to the aerofoil , pinging its location to a satellite so researchers knew where to pick it up . The findings were write in the journalPLOS ONE .
It was previously consider that shark were negatively or neutrally perky , but the data from the subject propose that the six - gill and bristled species of shark do in fact have a small amount of positive buoyancy send them up toward the aerofoil . ( So fear not — the corking white shown above still has to work really hard to do that ) . That contradicts long - reserve formal wisdom that sharks will sink if they stop swimming .
In apress releasefrom the University of Hawaii at Manoa , study conscientious objector - generator Carl Meyer said , “ We did n’t carry to find evidence of positive airiness , and ran two Seth of experimentation to confirm our initial observations of this phenomenon . This determination was a entire surprise . ”
The findings were so surprising in fact that Meyer initially wondered whether the equipment was contributing to the shark ’s airiness , but re - standardization and repeat experiments affirmed the data .
The research worker were able to identify positive airiness because six - lamella and prickly sharks have to work harder to swim down than up , and are able to glide toward the open of the water for proceedings at a timewithout using their tails . More research needs to be done to work out out why the trait might be in these sharks and if others have it as well , butMeyer speculatedthat it might help them sneak up and catch prey from below . After all , fish got ta drown … and eat on .
For pic from the projection , click over toLive Science .
