Expedition Great White
Season 2 of Shark Men (previouisly called Expedition Great White) Premieres Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on NGC — Shark Men features the tagging and tracking of great white sharks by MCSI with the help of Chris Fischer, Captain Brett McBride and the crew of the vessel Ocean. It uses real-time tracking devices that are attached to the dorsal fin of the sharks and can give an...
Read MoreTiger Sharks
MCSI has initiated a tiger shark research project in collaboration with the Guy Harvey Research Institute. Tiger sharks have become an important tourist draw in the Bahamas, but very little is known about the life history of tiger sharks in the Bahamas. Furthermore, tiger sharks are not currently protected by law in the Bahamas. During a recent field trip methods were developed for the...
Read MoreArchival Tagging
Archival tags, as their name suggests, archive (or store) data. These small devices are deployed on a fish where they log a variety of information. If the fish is recaptured and the tag recovered, the logged data can be downloaded. Tags may log a variety of variables depending on the system including, temperature (sometimes both body temperature and water temperature), depth, light intensity...
Read MorePacific bluefin tuna
Pacific Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus orientalis) (used with permission from the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Comission) The current status of bluefin populations may be largely attributed to the high value of the fish in the Japanese sashimi market, where one animal can demand as much as $80,000 dollars. The north Pacific population appears to be the only one of the three that has not been severely...
Read MoreWhite Shark
Very few animals generate the mixture of fascination and terror as the great white shark. Unfortunately, the terror-associated, anti-shark sentiment has led to the unnecessary slaughter of many animals. White sharks have recently been listed for international protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) Appendix II and were listed as...
Read MoreOffield Center For Billfish Studies
The Offield Center for Billfish Studies has been conducting groundbreaking research on marlin species since 2000 and has grown into the largest billfish program in the world with over 450 satellite popup tags deployed on marlin around the globe. Paxson Offield was instrumental in developing MCSI’s largest research program, the The Offield Center for Billfish Studies ...
Read MorePop-up Satellite Tags
Pop-up satellite tags are small devices that represent a marriage of archival tags and a satellite transmitter. The tag is inserted with a barb beneath the skin near the base of the dorsal fin (ideally) while the tag itself is outside the animal. These tags log temperature, depth and light intensity. As with the archival tags, light can be used to calculate latitude and...
Read MoreConventional Tags
Conventional tags are essentially fish identification tags. These take many forms and may consist of a long piece of plastic tubing, a disc, or small coded wire. Generally they contain a unique number, identifying the individual fish as well as contact information from the sponsoring organization. They can be...
Read MoreAcoustic Telemetry Tagging
Acoustic telemetry is used to obtain a relatively continuous record of fish movements and is ideal for asking fine scale questions. It can be done actively, in real-time, or passively, using a listening station. For both the first step is to secure an acoustic transmitter or “pinger” to a fish. This pinger emits an acoustic pulse at a frequency from 32-300 kHz. This sound pulse is then picked...
Read MoreMCSI’s Tagging Technologies
Scientists have been trying for hundreds of years to study fish movements. Studying an animal that lives under water is not necessarily an easy task. Before modern technology, researchers would sometimes clip fins or secure a chain around the tail to mark individuals. The value of this type of mark and recapture study is that if we know where an individual fish is at two different times we can...
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