Weekly News Digest from Mote

The largest-ever scientific study of whale sharks — the world’s biggest fish — was published in the journal PLOS ONE Wednesday, Aug. 21 by Mote Marine Laboratory scientists and collaborators from Mexico. The study reveals the sharks’ international journeys and their relationship to the largest whale shark feeding hotspot known to science.

In short: This is big.

The nine-year study, entitled “Horizontal Movements, Migration Patterns, and Population Structure of Whale Sharks in the Gulf of Mexico and Northwestern Caribbean Sea,” is now available online in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE.

To view the paper online, visit: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071883

This Mote-led study shows that whale sharks found at a major feeding hotspot near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula travel to many places throughout the Gulf of Mexico, the northwestern Caribbean Sea and the Straits of Florida. These findings highlight why the Mexican feeding site is a vital fueling station for whale sharks throughout the region and suggest that these wide-ranging fish need international protection. The study also documented the second-longest whale shark migration ever confirmed — a trail that may help researchers discover where the sharks give birth.

• Click here to read the full story.
  

• Click here to listen to a story about the study from National Public Radio.
  

Dr. Robert Hueter of Mote Marine Laboratory tags a whale shark with a satellite transmitter during the largest-ever scientific study of whale shark migration. (Credit John Tyminski/Mote Marine Laboratory)

Mote scientists aboard the M/V OCEARCH report that as of yesterday, Aug. 22, two great white sharks of have been tagged and released during “Expedition Cape Cod.”

“Betsy” and “Katharine” were each fitted with multiple scientific tags by a team that included Dr. Nick Whitney and Dr. Robert Hueter of Mote Marine Laboratory’s nationally designated Center for Shark Research. Mote scientists have been invited to participate in the research trip led by the nonprofit organization OCEARCH.

OCEARCH helps leading scientists obtain groundbreaking data on the biology and health of sharks, supporting research on sharks’ life history and migration. Their research ship, the M/V OCEARCH, is a unique 126-foot vessel equipped with a custom 75,000-pound hydraulic lift and research platform. It serves as both mother ship and at-sea laboratory.

The expedition is advancing the research programs of Mote, as well as the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and many other researchers and institutions.

• Betsy, the first shark of the expedition, was tagged on Aug. 15. She is an immature female measuring 12.5 feet long and weighing in at 1,400 pounds. Mote scientist Dr. Nick Whitney sized up Betsy with this tongue-in-cheek estimation via a short text: “She was big, but not that big. But definitely not small.” He can say this, of course, because the first white shark Whitney tagged weighed more than 3,500 pounds!
  
  Whitney had the opportunity to tag Betsy with an accelerometer, a tag that monitors the fine-scale movements of the shark following its release. The tags that Whitney is using during the expedition are funded through the Waitt Foundation Rapid Ocean Conservation grant program.
  
• Katharine, the second shark of this expedition, was tagged on Aug. 20.  She is a 14-foot, 2-inch female shark weighing about 2,300 pounds, and she appears to be nearly mature. She was also tagged by Whitney with an accelerometer.

Great white shark “Katharine” is fitted with a fine-scale motion sensor called an accelerometer by Dr. Nick Whitney (left) of Mote Marine Laboratory during an expedition led by OCEARCH. The accelerometer is designed to monitor Katharine’s behaviors for two weeks. (Credit OCEARCH/ R. Snow)

Great white shark “Katharine” is wearing scientific tags and will soon be returned to sea during an OCEARCH-led expedition off Cape Cod. Participating scientists from Mote Marine Laboratory fitted Katharine with a fine-scale motion sensor designed to monitor her behaviors for two weeks. (Credit OCEARCH / R. Snow)

The accelerometer tags that Whitney attached to Betsy and Katharine’s fins are designed to stay on for two weeks, then release from the sharks and float to the surface so he can retrieve them and collect their data. Leaving the accelerometers on for so long is a bold move because there’s no telling where the sharks will travel and whether the scientists will be able to retrieve the tags once they pop off the fish.

“We have no idea how far away these sharks will swim by the time the tags come off and we have to recover them,” Whitney said. “If we're able to get them back, we'll be rewarded with the largest accelerometer data sets ever obtained from sharks — two full weeks of their fine-scale behavior.”

Each shark was also sampled for blood to learn more about their physiology and tagged with a satellite tag that lets the scientists follow their real-time movements. The public can also follow their travels through the Atlantic Ocean online through the Global Shark Tracker at http://sharks-ocearch.verite.com/ (And, as they say, there’s also an app for that — you can download it for free from your app store.

Mote’s shark research was also recently featured on Tampa Bay’s Fox 13. Reporter Cynthia Smoot had the opportunity to join researchers during a recent shark-tagging trip in Boca Grande. Click to watch the story.

Ringling Students and Mote Make Waves on Social Media

Nearly 100 students from Ringling College of Art and Design photographed animals in The Aquarium at Mote Marine Laboratory Saturday for a social media education project called “Make Waves for the Ocean.”

Now Mote, which developed the project, is inviting the public to join in by raising awareness for the oceans on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other social media pages.

That means plenty of LOL catsharks and manatee memes…right? (We couldn’t resist!)

To participate:

• Watch a special presentation at www.mote.org/makewaves.
• Post that link through your favorite social media page, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
• In the same post, add your own statement about why the oceans matter to you.
• If possible, also include your own photo of marine life. It’s excellent if you take your photo by visiting The Aquarium at Mote, which displays more than 100 marine species.
• Your post should also include the hash tag #makewavesmote, to help others find it more easily.

Students from Ringling College of Art and Design photograph animals in The Aquarium at Mote Marine Laboratory for an educational social media project called "Make Waves for the Oceans." (Credit Jennifer Friedman/Ringling College of Art and Design)

The Ringling students were freshmen who chose to support Mote through a student service project. These projects, which took place on Aug. 17 at several locations, are designed to help organizations in the local community.

Mote Marine Laboratory created www.mote.org/makewaves to share why our oceans matter and how we can help them. Mote is dedicated to today’s research for tomorrow’s oceans and to informal science education programs for all ages.

State Rep. Jim Boyd Tours Mote

Dr. Michael P. Crosby, President and CEO of Mote Marine Laboratory (left), speaks with State Rep. Jim Boyd, alongside Dr. Emily Hall of Mote Marine Lab (green shirt) and her interns in the OASys lab designed to study ocean acidification. (Credit Mote Marine Laboratory)

Mark Your Calendar: September
Good eats, great cause at Columbia

Dining out can satisfy much more than your appetite — eat at Columbia Restaurant during September and five percent of your check will support Mote or another nonprofit of your choice. The 16^th Annual Columbia Restaurant Community Harvest builds on 15 years of raising more than $1.3 million for Florida nonprofit organizations.

Columbia Restaurant is open from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 365 days a year at 411 St. Armands Circle, Sarasota.

Other Columbia locations participating in Community Harvest will include: Tampa’s Historic Ybor City, the Historic District in St. Augustine, Sand Key on Clearwater Beach, Central Florida's town of Celebration, the Columbia Café on the Riverwalk in Tampa and the Columbia Restaurant Café at Tampa International Airport. For more information about the Community Harvest program, including a list of participating nonprofits and restaurant locations, visit www.columbiarestaurant.org or contact Columbia Restaurant in Sarasota at 941-388-3987.

Mote needs your help to continue our mission of advancing marine science, education, and outreach. Visit www.mote.org for more food for thought.