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Basking sharks don't hibernate - scientist |
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| UK: September 11, 2002 | ||
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LEICESTER, England, - Scientists studying the movements of fish around the northeast Atlantic said yesterday they had made an amazing discovery, shattering for ever the 50-year-old myth that the giant Basking Shark hibernates.
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"Our findings have completely dispelled that theory," fisheries expert Dave Sims from the Marine Biological Association (MBA) charity told reporters at the British Association for the Advancement of Science's annual festival. He said he had tagged 20 Basking Sharks - the world's second largest fish and the biggest in British waters - with satellite transmitters as part of a three-year survey into their movements. The first results of this continuous tracking showed not only that the sharks undertook huge journeys in search of food, but they also did not sink to the floor of the ocean and go to sleep for months at a time as had previously been thought. "Our data is groundbreaking," he said. "It ends the hibernation myth and also shows they migrate." Sims said his findings were vital for the conservation of the Basking Shark which is listed as an endangered species.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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