Sharks Track Hurricanes In Ocean Study

Scientists are strapping sensors to sharks and sending them out to collect hurricane data. It sounds like a B-movie plot, but it's actually happening off the Atlantic coast.

Marine researchers need ocean temperature readings from different depths to predict hurricanes. Getting that data usually means expensive research ships or underwater robots that break down. So, they're trying something different—letting sharks do the swimming for them.

Aaron Carlisle, a marine ecologist at the University of Delaware, leads the project. His team tags blue sharks and makos with sensors that record water temperature and depth. These species travel thousands of miles and dive deep, reaching parts of the ocean that rarely get monitored.

"We're able to observe a much larger part of the ocean that typically remains unobserved," Carlisle said.

The Temperature Connection