For the first time in history, scientists have identified a new species from water world that use to migrate towards the south during the winter. There are several species on earth used to migrate each year during the winter. Cetorhinus Maximus, commonly known as the basking shark swims to the south to get some sun in winter.
Scientists from the University of Exeter have discovered the strange behavior of Basking shark by using the long-term cutting-edge satellite tracking data. Researchers found that the basking sharks spend their winter off the coast of Portugal and North Africa. Some of them migrate to the Bay of Biscay and others chose to head towards the UK and Ireland. Their reports were first published in the journal of Scientific Reports.
Professor Philip Doherty from the Environment and Sustainability Institute on the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall and the lead researcher of this study, said in a statement,“Knowing where these animals are all year round allows us to understand the threats they face. This is essential information if we want to protect them, especially as they swim far outside UK waters, meaning any conservation efforts must be international”. Before this discovery, it was a hypothesis that the giant plankton-eating fish get hibernated at this time of the year.
An adult basking shark can grow up to 12 meters. It is the largest fish in British waters and the second largest in the world. Once British fishermen used to hunt basking shark for its fins, liver oil and meat. Later in 1988, the species received full protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
According to ScienceDaily, Scientists tagged 70 sharks for their research and 28 of them continued to transmit data for five months. Most of the sharks were found either stayed near the UK or swam to the waters off Spain, North Africa, and Portugal and a very few numbers of shark spent the winter in the Bay of Biscay, west of France.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified the Basking sharks as “vulnerable” and the north-east Atlantic population is officially “endangered”. Scientists are planning to conduct more research on basking shark because scientists do not yet fully know why or how often they do this.
