No menu items!

COSTA RICA'S LEADING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

HomeArchiveResearchers spot giant sharks in Costa Rica

Researchers spot giant sharks in Costa Rica

Researchers with the ocean conservation organization PRETOMA were pulling in their fishing line when they realized they had caught a little more than they had bargained for: what is believed to be a bull shark measuring approximately four meters (13 feet) in length.

“It was very close to the surface. We were pulling it in when the line broke,” said Allan Bolaños, a researcher who was aboard a boat about two kilometers off the coast of the southern Pacific Osa Peninsula when he and others spotted the massive shark.

Bolaños and a group of researchers were in the region to capture bull sharks in order to outfit them with tracking devices in order to study their movements. The fishing lines the scientists were using, however, were no match for the largest of these sharks, PRETOMA said in a statement released last week.

“Many of the hooks and steel leaders were mangled, destroyed, or simply bitten off by the large animals, only one of which came close enough to our fishing vessel for us to take a glimpse of its amazing size, before it too broke free,” said Randall Arauz, the expedition´s scientific director.

Bull sharks, particularly juveniles, are known to swim up freshwater rivers in search of food and protection. According to National Geographic, bull sharks have been seen far up the San Juan River, which forms Costa Rica´s northern border with Nicaragua, and are believed to inhabit Lake Nicaragua, the river´s source.

On average, bull sharks range between 2.1 and 3.4 meters, and are classified as “near threatened” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

As part of t he Bull Shark Tagging Project, t he researchers captured and tagged four juvenile bull sharks measuring approximately one meter in the brackish waters where the Sirena River meets the ocean, at the edge of Corcovado National Park. Bolaños and others are studying the movement patterns of the sharks in the hopes of expanding the national park´s boundaries to cover more of the sea.

Currently, Bolaños said, the park´s protected status extends 500 meters into the ocean, an area where fishing is prohibited. The four-meter bull shark was spotted two kilometers from shore.

The research project is funded by the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), the BBC Wildlife Fund, and corporate sponsors through PRETOMA´s Corporate Membership program.

Trending Now

An Expat’s Take: 5 Burning Questions About Life in Costa Rica Right Now

Have you been keeping up with the various events taking place in Costa Rica? There is always something interesting going down, and here are...

Hondurans March to Mark 2009 Coup as Election Battle Heats Up

Thousands of government supporters marched Saturday in the capital of Honduras to commemorate the anniversary of the 2009 coup that ousted then-leftist President Manuel...

Costa Rica’s Cutris Mining Bill Threatens Massive Environmental Damage

Costa Rica’s government is pushing a controversial bill that could open the entire Cutris district in San Carlos—848 square kilometers—to open-pit gold mining. The...

Costa Rica’s Rare Birds at Risk as Human Activity Threatens Extinction

Costa Rica’s bare-necked umbrellabird, a striking black bird with a red throat pouch and crest, is in trouble. A new study in Nature Ecology...

Costa Rica and Panama Seek Gold Cup Glory Against North American Giants

With no Caribbean teams advancing, a Central American contingent made up of Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala heads into the quarterfinals of the...

Costa Rica Hunts for Nicaraguan Hit Squad After Exile’s Assassination

Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) is investigating whether a hit squad tied to Nicaragua’s Ortega-Murillo regime is targeting exiled critics on its soil....
Avatar
spot_img
Costa Rica Tours
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Travel Insurance
Costa Rica Rocking Chait
Costa Rica Travel

Latest News from Costa Rica