EXERCISE JURASSIC SHARK 2 will take place from 19 October - 07 November 2008. It will be a 3 week, 15 man Tri-Service expedition to tag Great White Sharks, Whale Sharks and Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks around Guadalupe and the Revillagigedo (Socorro) Islands, off the Pacific coast of Mexico. It is hoped that this work together with the associated publicity will assist in making this initiative a reality whilst drawing attention to the effect of shark finning and long lining.
Each species of shark will be tagged as a part of a specific project. The Great White Shark project will concentrate on establishing the movements of individual sharks around Guadalupe using both radio and satellite tags. Fundamental questions include whether different size sharks forage in the study area in the same way? Are they equally active during night and day? Do they return on a seasonal and/or annual basis to the same Sea Lion colony? Do they search for prey singly or in groups and do they converge periodically to scavenge on the remains from a successful predation?
Whale Sharks aggregate around the Revillagigedo Islands, observations indicate that these are invariably adult females and pregnant. The presence of pregnant females suggests that Whale Sharks use the deep waters of the southern area of the Gulf of California and Revillagigedo Islands as their primary nursery. Tags will be used to identify local vertical and regional horizontal scale movement of pregnant females around and off the Revillagigedos Islands. Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks were tagged off Cocos Island on Exercise Jurassic Shark. As a result we now know that sharks migrate between Cocos, Galapagos and Malpelo. This project will attempt to establish if the migration of these sharks extends as far as the Revillagigedo Islands.
The expedition will be carried out in co-operation with the Shark Research Institute (SRI), Centro De Investigaciones Biologicas del Noroeste, S.C. (CiB) and the Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas (CICIMAR). One scientist from each organisation will accompany the expedition; each sponsoring one of the three shark tagging projects. The expedition will be based on the live-aboard boat, Sea Escape.
Expedition members must be members of the British Armed Forces, qualified to at least BSAC Dive Leader (or equivalent) and have a real interest in conservation of sharks. It should be noted that the use of re-breathers will be fundamental to this expedition (although re-breather training will not be required in order to gain a place). Further information will be posted on this website in due course.
Joining Profoma for potential team members Click HERE.
Joining Profoma for existing or selected expedition members - Click HERE.
Any questions should be addressed to the Expedition Leader.
