GreatWhite Nicole makes Australia to Africa trip
A great white shark named Nicole logged more than 12,000 miles swimming
from Africa to Australia and back,the first proof of a link between the two continents ‘ shark populations, researcherssay.A second reports details the
movement of dozens of salmon sharks from summer waters near Alaska to warmer winter quarters off Hawaii and Baja California.
Sharks have home ranges that are at the scale of ocean basins,said researchers Barbara A of Stanford University.She added that conservation management of sharks such as the white shark and salmon shark will required international cooperation,Tracking a shark from Africa to Australiais one of the significant discoveries about white shark ecology and suggests we might have to rewrite the life history of this powerful fish,said Ramon Bonfil.lead author of that study.Both reports appear in Journal Science.
George Burgess,an expert at the Florida Museum of Natural History,said while sharks are known to travel long distances, this was first
evidence of movement between Australia and Africa.These are large animals that have the capability of making large movements,he said.
Enric Cortes of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Shark Population Assessment Group in Florida agreed this is the first direct evidence of a connection between African and Australian white sharks.
Peter Klimley,a shark expert at the University of California, Davis,called a trip of that length amazing.He said there have been genetic indications that these two sharks groups might be connected, but that’s not the sma as showing actual movement.
A satellite tracking device temporarily attached to Nicole documented her 99-day swim from South Africa to Australia.About six months later,she was identified from photos back off the coast of South Africa.Some 24 other white sharks tagged off South Africa engaged in wide-ranging coastal migration ,but only Nicole headed out to seaBonfil thinks that it is one in a million.
Nicole was tagged in November 2003 with a device that reports her position.The researchers said the shark was named Nicole in honor of Australian actress Nicole Kidman.