The basking sharks can jump as high and as fast as the tall whites

A collaborative team of marine biologists has discovered that pilgrims, hundreds of them off the coast of Ireland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Scotland, can jump as fast and as high as their cousins, the famous and the great predatory white shark.

Basking Sharks are the second largest fish in the world, reaching lengths of up to 10 m (33 ft). Until now, they were known for their slowness and languor when they roamed the sea to feed on plankton.

However, a new study, recently published in the leading international journal Letters of biology used a video analysis for both species and estimated their swimming speed vertical when they left the water. In addition, they attached a data recording device to a large basking shark to measure its speed and movement, as well as to store video footage.

At one point, in just over nine seconds, with 10 tail beats, the basking shark accelerated 28 meters deep to the surface and crossed the water at nearly 90 degrees. The shark cleaned the water for one second and its jump peaked at a height of 1.2 m above the surface.

To reach this gap, the basking shark has had a tail beat frequency six times higher and reaches a maximum speed of about 5.1 m / s. To put things in perspective, this is more than twice as fast as the average male 50m freestyle competitor.

The videos of boats and the land of the two basking sharks and the great Whites who made a breach showed similar speeds to those of other individuals. Pilgrim shark videos were recorded in 2015 in Malin Head, Ireland, while videos of great white sharks were recorded in 2009 at two sites in South Africa, where seal-shaped lures caused attempts to feed.

Assistant Professor of Zoology at Trinity College Dublin, Dr. Nick Payne was co-author of the article. He said: "The impressive speed at which we have discovered the shark exposure shows how much we still need to learn about marine animals – even the largest and most remarkable species have surprises, if we want to examine them. "

Dr. Jonathan Houghton, a senior lecturer in marine biology at Queen's University in Belfast, said, "This discovery does not mean that pilgrims are ferocious predators that tear at high speed. More to do with these sharks than the huge swimming sieves that we are so familiar with, it's a bit like discovering cows as fast as wolves (when not looking).

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More information:
Emmett M. Johnston et al., Latent Power of Pilgrims Revealed by Exceptional Events, Letters of biology (2018). DOI: 10.1098 / rsbl.2018.0537