Matt Hooper walks into Jaws as the young shark expert from the Oceanographic Institute.
Played by Richard Dreyfuss, Hooper arrives on Amity after Chief Brody tells town officials they are bringing in experts from “the oceanographic institute on the mainland.”
I’ve watched Jaws more times than I could ever count, but for years I never really thought much about that reference.
Then something clicked.
On my first trip to Martha’s Vineyard to film for Gulf Great White Sharks: Return of an Icon, we left Woods Hole on the ferry headed toward the island where much of Jaws was filmed.
I looked back toward the mainland and saw Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Wait a minute.
The oceanographic institute on the mainland.
I knew Woods Hole was one of the most important centers of ocean research in the world, but seeing it from the ferry while literally traveling into Jaws country made that old line connect in a completely different way.
So, on our latest Gulf Great White Shark Society expedition to New England, getting the opportunity to actually walk into Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was pretty special. Marina Wilson joined us as part of our mentoring program, along with my wife Lisa and daughter Faith.
We met with Dr. Laura McDonnell, a postdoctoral investigator at WHOI and member of its Marine Predators Group. She gave us a look into some of the incredible work being done with tagging and tracking large marine predators.
And there was a lot more going on than putting a tag on a shark and watching where it swims.
McDonnell studies how sharks, tunas and other large predatory fish interact with changing ocean conditions. Her work combines information collected from electronic tags with satellite observations and other oceanographic data to better understand where these animals travel and what is happening in the water around them.
One of her recent projects takes that concept in a fascinating direction.
Research led by McDonnell explored whether sharks themselves could essentially become ocean-observing platforms.
She and collaborators tagged 18 blue sharks and one shortfin mako in the Northwest Atlantic with electronic tags capable of recording temperature and depth along with the animals’ locations.
Over six months, those sharks transmitted more than 8,200 temperature-depth profiles as they traveled through the Atlantic, in some cases reaching depths approaching 2,000 meters, or roughly 6,500 feet.
Think about that for a minute.
The shark isn’t simply being studied.
The shark is helping scientists study the ocean.
McDonnell’s research showed that information gathered by these animals could be incorporated into ocean forecasting models and improve seasonal ocean-temperature predictions.
That completely changes the way you can look at wildlife tagging.
I’ve followed tagged sharks for years and watched those tracks move across maps. For most of us, the immediate question is always the same: Where did the shark go?
But the animal can potentially tell us much more than that.
What was the water temperature?
How deep did it dive?
What kind of ocean feature was it moving through?
What conditions attracted it there?
And can information collected by that shark tell us something about the ocean itself?
That was one of the biggest things I took away from our meeting.
McDonnell’s current research at Woods Hole looks at how marine predators respond to oceanographic events and features, including marine heatwaves and mesoscale eddies. Those swirling masses of ocean water can influence temperature, productivity and prey distribution and potentially help explain why predators concentrate in particular places.
Suddenly, the lines on a shark-tracking map take on a whole new meaning.
And then there were the swordfish.
McDonnell showed us some fascinating work involving swordfish and the ocean’s twilight zone.
WHOI researchers have used sophisticated tagging and biologging technology to investigate how large predators use these deep-water environments. The work gives scientists a window into dramatic vertical movements through parts of the ocean most of us will never see.
Researchers have used tags capable of recording far more than simply an animal’s location. Combined with other ocean-observing tools, the information can help scientists begin putting together a picture of what these predators are doing hundreds or even thousands of feet beneath the surface.
That blew me away.
I’ve spent much of my life studying wildlife, but there are still moments when someone shows me something that changes how I look at an animal.
This was one of those moments.
It also reinforced something important about great white sharks.
Through the Gulf Great White Shark Society, I’ve spent years focusing on white sharks entering the Gulf and trying to help people understand that these animals are a real and important part of our marine ecosystem.
But you can’t truly understand the shark without understanding the ocean it lives in.
Temperature, currents, depth, prey and changing ocean conditions are all pieces of a gigantic puzzle. Ocean features that most people will never see can influence where these predators travel, feed and spend their time.
A great white shark swimming off Cape Cod is not just a Cape Cod shark.
These are highly migratory animals capable of traveling enormous distances and moving through dramatically different environments. Understanding them requires looking beyond a dot on a map and into the ocean around that dot.
Woods Hole is doing exactly that.
The Marine Predators Group uses tagging, satellite observations, ocean sensors, computational research and fieldwork to study predators and the environments they inhabit. And WHOI as a whole is looking at everything from ocean circulation and climate to deep-sea environments and the creatures living within them.
The more McDonnell showed us, the more I realized how interconnected all of this really is.
It was also exactly the kind of experience we wanted Marina to have.
There is something powerful about putting a young person with big dreams in the same room with someone actually doing the work.
They can ask questions, see the technology, hear how the scientist got there and discover possibilities they might never have considered before.
That is a huge part of what these trips are about.
And there was something pretty cool about the whole thing for me, too.
A movie about a giant shark captured my imagination when I was a kid.
Years later, I traveled out of Woods Hole to film a documentary about real great white sharks and looked back from the ferry to realize the “oceanographic institute on the mainland” wasn’t just some throwaway movie reference. There was a very real world of ocean science behind it.
Now I was walking through those doors with a young woman who dreams of making wildlife conservation part of her future.
Jaws helped introduce a generation to the mystery of what might be swimming beneath the surface.
At Woods Hole, scientists are working every day to actually find out.
And after getting just a glimpse into that world, I’m more fascinated with what is happening beneath the surface than ever.
Chester Moore
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