as bette would say... 'Cause you got to have friends. la, la, la, la, la, la, friends...

[samhexum]

Unlikely friends: 2 great white sharks traveling together shock researchers

Traveling long distances without a companion can get lonely − and apparently that goes even for solitary creatures like great white sharks.

 

Scientists at the nonprofit research organization OCEARCH were surprised when they discovered two sharks they had tagged with satellite trackers in December have since traveled side by side for thousands of miles.

The discovery sheds new light on everything scientists thought they knew about the apex predators, once believed to prefer only their own company, according to Bob Hueter, chief scientist at OCEARCH.

"This is potentially groundbreaking," Hueter said in a video posted Sunday on the Facebook page of the Museum of Science in Boston. "We've never seen anything quite like this before."

Researchers at OCEARCH first tagged the sharks, named Simon and Jekyll for the Georgia islands where they were found, in December on the southeastern coast of the United States. Since then, satellite data has shown the predators moving in tandem along the Atlantic coast for more than 4,000 miles.  

OCEARCH has tagged more than 400 animals since its first expedition in 2007. And while its research has yielded more than 75 published studies, team members never thought they'd discover that yes, sharks can be friendly.

"Simon and Jekyll," Hueter said. "They seem to be buddies."

Simon, a 9-footer weighing 434 pounds, and 8-foot-long Jekyll, who weighs 395 pounds, eventually reached Canadian waters and have most recently been tracked to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Before the OCEARCH team tagged the sharks, Hueter said, they took samples of blood, tissue and muscle. A geneticist will analyze the samples to determine whether Simon and Jekyll are brothers or otherwise related, he said.

 

Simon.

 

Jekyll.

 

Unlikely friends: 2 great white sharks traveling together shock researchers

WWW.AOL.COM

---

Great white sharks have long been thought to be solitary creatures, so scientists were surprised that two of them...

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by samhexum
for absolutely NO @%!*ING reason at all!

[Luv2play]

Nice to hear even white sharks have some buddies. And they have come to Canada. Omg.

[CuriousByNature]

13 hours ago, Luv2play said:

Nice to hear even white sharks have some buddies. And they have come to Canada. Omg.

Some guy hooked a juvenile Great White from his kayak while he was fishing in the Minas Basin in the Bay of Fundy earlier this month.  The Maritime provinces have always been part of their northern range, but with increasing temperatures I have heard that some White Sharks are bypassing Cape Cod and spending the summers off of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.... 

[Luv2play]

56 minutes ago, CuriousByNature said:

Some guy hooked a juvenile Great White from his kayak while he was fishing in the Minas Basin in the Bay of Fundy earlier this month.  The Maritime provinces have always been part of their northern range, but with increasing temperatures I have heard that some White Sharks are bypassing Cape Cod and spending the summers off of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.... 

Unlike the Cape, the waters off NS are too cold to swim in. I guess PEI is warmer but never been there. 

[CuriousByNature]

6 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

Unlike the Cape, the waters off NS are too cold to swim in. I guess PEI is warmer but never been there. 

It's beautiful. And the Northumberland Strait is relatively shallow, with the warmest waters north of the Carolinas

[Luv2play]

2 hours ago, CuriousByNature said:

It's beautiful. And the Northumberland Strait is relatively shallow, with the warmest waters north of the Carolinas

I figured the water would be shallower around PEI. In the Bay of Fundy where I once swam in August, it is very cold, about 54f the day I went.

[CuriousByNature]

2 hours ago, Luv2play said:

I figured the water would be shallower around PEI. In the Bay of Fundy where I once swam in August, it is very cold, about 54f the day I went.

And White Sharks are one of the few species of fish that can regulate their body temperature so that they remain warmer than the surrounding water.  That has allowed them to extend their range into cooler waters, unlike a lot of sharks that tend to stick to the tropics and sub-tropics.

[samhexum]

11 minutes ago, CuriousByNature said:

a lot of sharks... tend to stick to the tropics and sub-tropics.

maybe they're just on a permanent holiday.

Rose:
[while reading her phone messages] Why, oh why can't grief take a holiday?

Dorothy:
Oh, it does Rose, it does. Eventually, it comes to Miami like everyone else.

[+ Tygerscent]

On 8/9/2023 at 1:51 PM, samhexum said:

Unlikely friends: 2 great white sharks traveling together shock researchers

Traveling long distances without a companion can get lonely − and apparently that goes even for solitary creatures like great white sharks.

 

Scientists at the nonprofit research organization OCEARCH were surprised when they discovered two sharks they had tagged with satellite trackers in December have since traveled side by side for thousands of miles.

The discovery sheds new light on everything scientists thought they knew about the apex predators, once believed to prefer only their own company, according to Bob Hueter, chief scientist at OCEARCH.

"This is potentially groundbreaking," Hueter said in a video posted Sunday on the Facebook page of the Museum of Science in Boston. "We've never seen anything quite like this before."

Researchers at OCEARCH first tagged the sharks, named Simon and Jekyll for the Georgia islands where they were found, in December on the southeastern coast of the United States. Since then, satellite data has shown the predators moving in tandem along the Atlantic coast for more than 4,000 miles.  

OCEARCH has tagged more than 400 animals since its first expedition in 2007. And while its research has yielded more than 75 published studies, team members never thought they'd discover that yes, sharks can be friendly.

"Simon and Jekyll," Hueter said. "They seem to be buddies."

Simon, a 9-footer weighing 434 pounds, and 8-foot-long Jekyll, who weighs 395 pounds, eventually reached Canadian waters and have most recently been tracked to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Before the OCEARCH team tagged the sharks, Hueter said, they took samples of blood, tissue and muscle. A geneticist will analyze the samples to determine whether Simon and Jekyll are brothers or otherwise related, he said.

 

Simon.

 

Jekyll.

 

Unlikely friends: 2 great white sharks traveling together shock researchers

WWW.AOL.COM

---

Great white sharks have long been thought to be solitary creatures, so scientists were surprised that two of them...

 

For a moment I considered the names to be some cruel joke: Simon Legeee and Dr. Jekyll~ I was like: Why Couldn’t they pick something a bit less sinister like yogi and boo boo or Cybersix & Data-7, (since they pal in Canadian Waters).

Edited August 10, 2023 by Tygerscent