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Endangered basking sharks get tagged by researchers off Cork coast
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Researchers observing a six-metre long female basking shark that they had tagged. Image: Nick Payne/Trinity College Dublin
Researchers from Trinity College Dublin are trying to learn more about the behaviour of Ireland’s gentle giants.
Basking sharks are the second largest shark species in the world – with some growing to 12 metres in length. These sharks can be seen in Irish waters but they are an endangered species.
So now, researchers from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Natural Sciences have been tagging basking sharks in west Cork in a bid to learn more about these gentle giants.
Waterford, Ireland / WLR
May 6, 2021 12:52 PM
Researchers from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Natural Sciences have been tagging basking sharks in West Cork in a bid to learn more about ‘Ireland’s gentle giants’ some of which grow to 12 metres in length, which makes them the second-largest shark species in the world.
Assistant Professor Nick Payne and PhD candidate Haley Dolton have just returned from a week on the waves in which they managed to apply tags to four sharks.
These electronic tags accumulate data about the sharks’ behaviour and physiology as they cruise around the coast feeding on plankton.