Perhaps you’ve seen footage from National Geographic’s “Crittercam,” an underwater video camera that has been attached to animals such as sharks and whales. Well, scientists from the University of Hawai?i at M?noa and the University of Tokyo have gone one better. Not only have they been putting cameras on sharks to see what they get up to, but they’ve also been slipping them ingestible sensors, to monitor their dietary habits. The data that they’ve gathered could help protect shark populations, and the overall health of the ocean.
The video camera packages also include an accelerometer, a data-logging computer, and a VHF transmitter. They’re strapped onto the pectoral fins of sharks that are caught and released by the researchers, and they then proceed to record footage from the sharks’ point of view as they travel through the sea. The packs automatically release themselves from the fish after a set amount of time, at which point they float to the surface to be located and retrieved via their radio signal.
via Gizmodo
