New research published in Global Change Biology shows that warming Atlantic waters off the northeastern coast of the United States are altering the migrations of one of the region’s largest predators: the tiger shark. According to the researchers, these water giants, which can be up to 4.5 meters in length, venture about 400 kilometers north in the summer and arrive about a month earlier than they did in the 1980s.
The study shows that these changes in shark migration patterns almost perfectly follow the evolution of changes in water temperature in the area over the past few years, he says. Smithsonian Magazine. The new study, which combines nearly a decade of satellite tracking data with 40 years of shark-hunting records, shows that the species is making rapid and significant changes in its range to deal with the effects of shark hunting. weather changes.
The change in migration patterns brings concern to science. Predators at the top of the food chain help control and regulate the ecosystems in which they live, but researchers still haven’t been able to determine how tiger sharks will affect the new ecosystems they live in, says Neil Hammerschlag, a shark researcher at the University of Miami and lead author of the study. They move to it.
Moreover, the findings also have conservation implications because, as these sharks move north, they are spending more and more time out of the water with some form of protection from commercial fishing.
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