The Hindu : Front Page : Sharks can warn of storms, says study

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Wednesday, Mar 26, 2008
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Sharks can warn of storms, says study

London: Forget Jaws. Sharks can save lives too by giving early warning of storms.

Researchers in Britain carried out a study and found that the fearsome predators can sense minute changes in air pressure — a sign of imminent bad weather — and head for the safety of deeper waters when a storm is brewing.

“The shark’s inner ear is very similar to ours; if we go up in an aeroplane our ears pop due to the equalisation of pressures and the same thing goes on with a shark.

“There is a nerve which runs from the inner ear straight to the brain and relays pressure change information. They react to that. It’s an early warning system,” The Daily Telegraph quoted lead researcher Lauren Smith as saying. Ms. Smith and her colleagues at Aberdeen University came to the conclusion after tracking lemon sharks in the Bahamas.

“Juvenile sharks live in shallow coastal waters along the coastline and if you had monitoring stations or underwater cameras you could observe them migrating to deeper waters,” Ms. Smith was quoted as saying. — PTI

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