Leopard Sharks

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Methods Subjects While it appears likely that different species of sharks would share similarities in their navigational strategies, there will likely be interspecies differences. Since leopard sharks (Triakis semifasciata) were selected in Andrew Nosal’s study, from which much of the experimental setup has been borrowed, it appears that these sharks are the best candidates for this study. While more would certainly be better for statistical analysis, 36 sharks were captured in Nosal’s study, and it can be expected that similar numbers of sharks can be captured for this study. Location Leopard sharks (Triakis semifasciata) inhabit the Pacific coast of the North America. In Andrew Nosal’s study, the coast of La Jolla, California was chosen for the study. The location has previously been documented for attracting large numbers of leopard sharks between June and December and will likely facilitate the capturing process (Nosal, Caillat, Kisfaludy, Royer, & Wegner, 2014). Moreover, for consistency, it appears best to conduct the experiment near the …show more content…

In the first group, approximately ten sharks will first have the magnets attached to the dorsal surface of their heads. These sharks will then be transported to point A, approximately 10 kilometers away from the shore. A second group of around ten sharks will undergo sham treatment and have non-magnetic objects of similar shape and weight as the magnets attached to the dorsal surface of their heads. These sharks, too, will be released at point A, approximately 10 kilometers away from the shore. In a third group of ten sharks, magnets will also be attached to the dorsal surface of their heads, but they will be released at point B, approximately 20 kilometers away from the shore as a comparison to the first group. All the sharks will have a GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking device attached to monitor their

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