A joint research mission by OceanX, the Cape Eleuthera Institute and the Florida State University Marine Lab led to the first shark successfully tagged using a submersible drone.
The expedition, led by FSU Marine Labs Dean Grubbs, was able to implant a tracking device into an adult bluntnose sixgill shark off the coast of The Bahamas in over 600 feet of water.
Because of the deepwater habitats for sixgill sharks — up to 6,000 feet below the surface, traditional catch-and-release methods for tagging these sharks has proven unreliable. After several misfires, the team was able to successfully tag a specimen with a satellite tag on the final day of the expedition. The research team hopes that such techniques can be used on other deepwater shark species in the future.
