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Scientific detective work has uncovered a truly harrowing incident of shark-on-shark crime in the waters of Bermuda.
"I kept trying to think of alternative explanations for the increase in temperature at depth, but all signs pointed to the same conclusion…that our pregnant female porbeagle had to have been eaten by an even larger shark.". Porbeagles are a popular target for recreational fishing, but they are also targeted in commercial fishing, and end up as bycatch in the same.
This slow reproductive cycle makes them particularly vulnerable to population decline, especially when faced with multiple threats. To figure out how to protect these vulnerable animals, Anderson and her colleagues monitored the species using satellite tags that record the sharks' movements and behavior.
That data was odd. Up until 24 March 2021, the porbeagle seemed to be behaving pretty normally. From late December, she spent her time in the North Atlantic Ocean, diving to between 100 and 200 meters at night, and 600 to 800 meters during the day, at temperatures ranging between 6.4 and 23.52 degrees Celsius .
"It's highly unlikely that the temperature increase was due to the shark moving into a warmer water body based on all the other data we have, such as the change in diving behavior, the premature release of the pop-off satellite tag, and the fact that we never received any other locations from the finmount satellite tag," Anderson explained.
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