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Images of drones from a rare shark nursery, found 200 miles west of Ireland, have been revealed. This is what is called a discovery at a "scale never documented in Irish waters".
The images show a high concentration of non-locked shark eggs, alongside swarms of black-cats, suggesting that the eggs themselves belonged to the same species.
The discovery was made during the most recent survey conducted by the Marine The Institute's Holland 1 remote-controlled vehicle as part of the INFOMAR program, a joint venture of the Marine Institute (MI) and the Geological Survey of Ireland, jointly funded by the Irish Government and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. l & # 39; EU. INFOMAR aims to create "integrated mapping products of the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the seabed in the littoral zone".
This shark nursery was discovered during a survey "Searover" (analysis of sensitive ecosystem and reef habitat exploration by ROV) lasting three weeks, which Was released in July.
"This discovery demonstrates the importance of documenting sensitive marine habitats and will allow us to better understand the biology of these magnificent animals and their ecosystem function in the biologically sensitive area of Ireland," said David O & # 39; Sullivan, scientific leader of the Searover survey.
"It was incredible," he continued while addressing the Guardian, "a real David Attenborough film.This is a major biological discovery and a history of this magnitude would have been on Blue Planet if they knew it, "he said. "We know very little about deepwater shark nurseries on a global scale."
The eggs had been laid on dead coral skeletons. According to the video above, coral reefs can be a refuge for new sharks.
In addition to the large number of black-mouthed cats, the drone has also been able to capture images of the rare sarracin Sailfin, a species that could potentially be present to search for eggs.
The Searover survey is the second of three planned surveys. The team hopes to return next year to try to film the eggs that hatch.
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