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Great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) meet every year in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Credit: Shutterstock
Every winter, an ocean of emptiness in the deep sea of the middle of the Pacific attracts large crowds of great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) that swim for months from the shores of California and Mexico. Scientists have followed the sharks to their mysterious oceanic lair and have uncovered some potential reasons why dreaded predators might be attracted to the area, reported the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
According to the Schmidt Ocean Institute, sharks, known as Northeast Pacific whites, feed on elephant seals and other marine mammals along the California coast, between August and August. December. Then, in December, sharks swim to their meeting point in the middle of the ocean, about halfway around Hawaii, where they spend the winter and spring before returning to California. The satellite images suggested that the region was an oceanic desert, so scientists were perplexed as to why these prolific predators would leave the food-rich waters off California.
Barbara Block, a marine scientist from the Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford University, discovered the area more than ten years ago when she found tagged sharks in the area. She nicknamed the place the "White Shark Café", although she was not yet sure why the sharks were returning there. [Image Gallery: Great White Sharks]
When Block and his colleagues at Stanford University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium ventured into the mysterious shark gathering area this spring aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute's Falkor research ship, they were surprised: and fish – perfect ingredients for a large buffet of white sharks, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
This group of marine life specializing in high seas migrates every day in the water column, through what is called the intermediate water course – the area just below which the Sunlight enters the depths of the ocean. During daylight hours, creatures sink into the depths and then return to shallower waters at night.
The electronic tagging data collected from 10 sharks revealed that predators followed a similar pattern – making several dives up to nearly 1,500 feet (450 meters) during the day and up to about 200 meters ( 650 feet) at night. In April, male sharks increased their diving activity, reaching 140 dives per day, while females' diving habits remained unchanged, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
"The history of the white shark tells you that this area is of vital importance to us," said San Francisco Chronicle, a marine scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the 39, one of the shipping leaders. "They tell us this incredible story about water, and there's all this secret life we need to know."
But the difference between the diving behavior of male and female sharks in April remains a mystery.
"Either they eat something different or this is related in some way to their mating," Jorgensen told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The team continues to analyze this year's cruise data in hopes to answer more questions about the biological significance of the White Shark Café. They plan to publish their results in the coming months, Jorgensen told Live Science.
Original article on Live Science.
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