Ever wanted to meet a great white shark face to face? Ok, maybe not. But it would be really cool! Scientific nonprofit OCEARCH is offering the opportunity to join them on a shark tagging expedition. If you make a donation, you could win a five day trip aboard their research vessel and get to help with their important research. And meet a great white shark!
OCEARCH catches great white sharks and, using a sunken platform, brings them alongside their research vessel. Scientists take a few samples and measurements, and affix a GPS tracker to each shark. They work all around the world, with multiple other species of sharks as well as dolphins and sea turtles. The location data is shared on their tracking page so you can monitor your favorite animal. You can even follow one of the tagged sharks, named Mary Lee, on Twitter.
The OCEARCH YouTube channel has videos showing their different expeditions, as well as more about how they catch great white sharks and apply the tags. So you can see exactly what you’re in for should you win the sweepstakes!
Tagging great white sharks for research takes place all over the world. A group in Southern California is pairing that with drone footage in hopes of predicting their movements to the point where they can have a shark forecast for the area. Drones also recently recorded orcas eating a great white shark, proving they aren’t the apex predator after all. There’s still so much left to learn about sharks and their vast ocean environment. Even if meeting a great white shark in person seems scary, it’s a very cool opportunity to be part of that research.
You can enter the sweepstakes at this site with a donation to OCEARCH.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.
