Basking sharks and Lampreys (Lampreys on SHARKS!)
1 میلیون بار بازدید -
13 سال پیش
-
In 1998, Jonathan made a
In 1998, Jonathan made a remarkable discovery about Basking sharks, the second largest fish on Earth. While diving with Basking sharks in the frigid waters of the Bay of Fundy, Jonathan saw parasitic lampreys on the backs of the sharks. This had never before been documented, so he returned the next year with a shark biologist and a lamprey biologist to attempt to recover living lampreys from the backs of Basking sharks. They didn't think Jonathan could do it. Wait until you see what happens!
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It's a beautiful summer morning in Atlantic Canada. As the sun rises at 5 AM, the fog blows off the water and I head down to the dock to meet my ride.
We begin loading the "Mary O", a research boat from the University of New Brunswick.
Shark biologist Steve Turnbull is aboard, hoping to gather firsthand proof that Basking sharks in the Bay of Fundy have lampreys on them.
Also aboard is lamprey biologist Dr. Mike Wilke, who has brought all kinds of scientific equipment to test the lampreys…assuming we find any.
We're heading out into the middle of the Bay of Fundy--a long stretch of water between mainland Canada and Nova Scotia. It has the highest tides in the world and a huge amount of plankton.
Plankton is food for many animals in the ocean. The word plankton means drifter, so anything drifting is planktonic. These tiny copepods are planktonic crustaceans, smaller than a grain of rice. More than a quarter of million of them could fit into a coffee cup. They might not seem like much…
But they are the main food source for the Basking shark, which swims through the water with its mouth wide open to filter them out of the water by the millions.
Basking sharks are the second largest fish on Earth, reaching 45 feet long. That makes them longer than a school bus! That is one big shark! But since they feed only on plankton, they are no threat to people at all. In fact, a Basking shark's throat is only the size of a grapefruit. It can't swallow anything bigger than that!
We see something on the horizon and start heading that way. Soon we get closer and the shark dives out of site.
Back to the binoculars. Basking sharks are big fish and they don't need to come to the surface to breathe like whales. So you have to get really lucky to find one close enough to the surface that its dorsal fin sticks out of the water. Without that, we have no hope of finding any.
At last we find another shark and manage to sneak the boat up nearby. The shark is just cruising slowly, feeding on the plankton.
We jump in the inflatable and head out with cameras to see if it has a lamprey on its back.
We approach as close as we can, and roll off the boat.
An enormous shark passes below us in the green soupy water. The thick plankton makes the visibility bad, but that's why the sharks are here. It's pretty spooky.
I see a lamprey on the shark as it goes by, but I am not deep enough to grab it.
We decide to bring the Mary O up alongside a shark. They seem to react a lot better to this than the inflatable.
On the next attempt I jump into the water and get some good video of the lampreys on a shark. I'm incredibly excited that I have proof for the biologists that these sharks have lampreys on them. Now the hard part: our team takes turns trying to grab a lamprey and get it to the surface.
I manage to get one with one hand while holding my video camera in the other.
Meanwhile, Mike begins getting his apparatus together. He wants to find out how the lampreys can handle the toxic blood of the shark.
Sharks have a lot of urea in their blood which is why biologists used to think that sharks could not have lampreys on them.
Lampreys have a terrible looking oral disk instead of a jaw, used to drill a hole in a fish and drink their blood, like vampires.
If they are drinking the shark's blood, they are getting what biologists consider a deadly dose of toxic urea. So Mike wants to find out if they are really drinking the shark's blood, or just getting a free ride.
If they are drinking the shark's blood, how do they deal with the urea?
The lamprey doesn't seem very happy about being confined to a tiny little tray full of water.
With two lampreys aboard, we call it a day and head for the dock. Mike's research showed that the lampreys are in fact drinking the shark's blood and it turns out they have powerful kidneys that can filter out the toxic urea.
**********************************************************************
If you like Jonathan Bird's Blue World, don't forget to subscribe!
You can buy some Blue World T-shirts & Swag!
http://www.blueworldtv.com/shop
You can join us on Facebook!
Facebook: BlueWorldTV
Twitter: BlueWorld_TV
@blueworldtv
Web:
http://www.blueworldTV.com
**********************************************************************
It's a beautiful summer morning in Atlantic Canada. As the sun rises at 5 AM, the fog blows off the water and I head down to the dock to meet my ride.
We begin loading the "Mary O", a research boat from the University of New Brunswick.
Shark biologist Steve Turnbull is aboard, hoping to gather firsthand proof that Basking sharks in the Bay of Fundy have lampreys on them.
Also aboard is lamprey biologist Dr. Mike Wilke, who has brought all kinds of scientific equipment to test the lampreys…assuming we find any.
We're heading out into the middle of the Bay of Fundy--a long stretch of water between mainland Canada and Nova Scotia. It has the highest tides in the world and a huge amount of plankton.
Plankton is food for many animals in the ocean. The word plankton means drifter, so anything drifting is planktonic. These tiny copepods are planktonic crustaceans, smaller than a grain of rice. More than a quarter of million of them could fit into a coffee cup. They might not seem like much…
But they are the main food source for the Basking shark, which swims through the water with its mouth wide open to filter them out of the water by the millions.
Basking sharks are the second largest fish on Earth, reaching 45 feet long. That makes them longer than a school bus! That is one big shark! But since they feed only on plankton, they are no threat to people at all. In fact, a Basking shark's throat is only the size of a grapefruit. It can't swallow anything bigger than that!
We see something on the horizon and start heading that way. Soon we get closer and the shark dives out of site.
Back to the binoculars. Basking sharks are big fish and they don't need to come to the surface to breathe like whales. So you have to get really lucky to find one close enough to the surface that its dorsal fin sticks out of the water. Without that, we have no hope of finding any.
At last we find another shark and manage to sneak the boat up nearby. The shark is just cruising slowly, feeding on the plankton.
We jump in the inflatable and head out with cameras to see if it has a lamprey on its back.
We approach as close as we can, and roll off the boat.
An enormous shark passes below us in the green soupy water. The thick plankton makes the visibility bad, but that's why the sharks are here. It's pretty spooky.
I see a lamprey on the shark as it goes by, but I am not deep enough to grab it.
We decide to bring the Mary O up alongside a shark. They seem to react a lot better to this than the inflatable.
On the next attempt I jump into the water and get some good video of the lampreys on a shark. I'm incredibly excited that I have proof for the biologists that these sharks have lampreys on them. Now the hard part: our team takes turns trying to grab a lamprey and get it to the surface.
I manage to get one with one hand while holding my video camera in the other.
Meanwhile, Mike begins getting his apparatus together. He wants to find out how the lampreys can handle the toxic blood of the shark.
Sharks have a lot of urea in their blood which is why biologists used to think that sharks could not have lampreys on them.
Lampreys have a terrible looking oral disk instead of a jaw, used to drill a hole in a fish and drink their blood, like vampires.
If they are drinking the shark's blood, they are getting what biologists consider a deadly dose of toxic urea. So Mike wants to find out if they are really drinking the shark's blood, or just getting a free ride.
If they are drinking the shark's blood, how do they deal with the urea?
The lamprey doesn't seem very happy about being confined to a tiny little tray full of water.
With two lampreys aboard, we call it a day and head for the dock. Mike's research showed that the lampreys are in fact drinking the shark's blood and it turns out they have powerful kidneys that can filter out the toxic urea.
13 سال پیش
در تاریخ 1391/02/19 منتشر شده
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