Sharks survey seagrass beds

Sharks equipped with cameras are helping scientists map unknown seagrass beds in the Bahamas.

Vetenskapsradion reports that sharks of the tiger shark species have already managed to map an area of 92,000 square kilometers in the Caribbean Sea, which corresponds to an area as large as Portugal.

The gigantic area that has been mapped means that the researchers’ knowledge of the distribution of seagrass beds increases by up to 40 percent. It is knowledge that is important for understanding how seagrass beds are affected by climate change.

Reduced underwater beds can have a negative impact on the climate because sea grass sequesters carbon from the atmosphere.

In normal cases, the meadows are mapped with divers or submersible cameras, a method that is both costly and labor-intensive, so the new far-sighted colleagues will make the work much smoother.