Sharks may be able to predict hurricanes like the rapidly strengthening Tropical Storm Idalia.
Research shows that some sharks move to deeper, safer waters far before humans predict severe hurricanes. Efforts have begun to tag sharks to collect data that traditional ocean equipment is unable to reach.
As Tropical Storm Idalia intensifies and prompts evacuation orders less than 48 hours before its arrival, could shark movement have provided earlier warning signs?
Here is what early research says about sharks’ abilities to predict hurricanes:
How can sharks predict hurricanes?
Sharks sense dips in air pressure surrounding hurricanes. While those air pressure dips also accompany large thunderstorms, sharks seem to be able to sense the difference and stay put when it is just a minor storm.
Part of the key to their keen hurricane radar could be their ability to sense electrical fields from afar. Through a series of sensory pores in their snouts, sharks can sense extremely weak electric fields, including those in prey used to move muscles or make hearts beat.
Hurricane winds and waves also create electrical fields.
“This is an idea that’s been out there for quite a while, using animals as oceanographers,” said Michael Heithaus, a shark researcher and executive dean of the College of Arts, Sciences and Education at Florida International University.
Do sharks evacuate for a hurricane too?
Millions of years of evolution and experience with hurricanes have given different species of sharks different survival tactics in the face of a major hurricane.
- Smaller sharks escape hurricane turbulence in coastal waters for deeper, calmer waters. If they stay, they can get pushed onto land.
- Larger sharks, such as tiger sharks, use the opportunity for a feeding frenzy, scavenging smaller, weaker and injured fish, birds and invertebrates that get battered by debris. Therefore, larger sharks might brave the storm and stay closer to shore.
How can sharks help humans forecast hurricanes?
Satellite tagging technology attached to sharks allows researchers to gather safer, cheaper and faster oceanographic data compared to underwater weather drones.
Advances in the technology have allowed for smaller animals, including sharks, to carry the sensors. That data can be fed directly into the pipeline along with traditional buoys and gliders.
Sharks can swim across strong currents. They also move in advance of the hurricane. Collecting data from their movements can give researchers more advance insight into a storm.
Live Idalia updates: Florida shutting down, evacuating and bracing for major hurricane
Did sharks predict Tropical Storm Idalia?
Maybe. But researchers don’t have the tools in place to collect enough data yet.
The research efforts to date have only been used to tag approximately a dozen sharks, so no shark data has been able to reliably predict a hurricane yet. Also, because of the scale of sharks in the ocean compared to the precision needed to predict the movements ahead of a hurricane, predicting storms using sharks may not be feasible.
Still, researchers believe it could be a great addition to the suite of data tools forecasters use.
