Location
New York
Partners
The Digital Life Project
Release Date
Winter 2019
Location
New York
Partners
The Digital Life Project
Release Date
Winter 2019
"The data gathered from this AR activation has been incredibly illuminating when looking for new insight into shark movement."
Concept Overview
The Approach
Research
Why Sharks?
Sharks, lizards, snakes, frogs, flowers, fungi, and invertebrates make up the many species that have been mapped thanks to Beastcam, but recently Irschick has taken the Beastcam underwater to study sharks, and in particular, tiger sharks. It’s as simple as taking a team of scientists armed with GoPros to the seafloor, where they encircle the shark like paparazzi. The data gathered from this project has been incredibly illuminating when looking for new insight into shark movement. Migrating thousands of kilometers, sharks are some of nature’s best athletes. A recent study on their ability to perform such lengthy swims utilizes locomotion and size data from Irschick’s models to estimate the shark’s energy reserves. Although individual variation is possible, the study suggests that “fatter” sharks tend to have larger energy stores, which not only assists in understanding what makes their migration patterns successful, but also provides a simple metric to assess overall health.