The Quest To Uncover The Secret Lives Of Sharks
Data Driven Dr. Neil Hammerschlag (wearing a gray T-shirt) tracks sharks using a new kind of marine-animal tag that he helped design. His data could describe behavior and migration patterns in moment-by-moment detail. Copyright MacGillivray Freeman Films/Photographer: Peter Kragh Can a crew of scientists and volunteers armed with homemade trackers save sharks from extinction? I'm on a small boat. A woman in a bikini stands next to me dumping gallons of blood into the sea. Beside her, a man in board shorts strings barracuda heads onto large fishhooks as crooked as a witch's finger, and in front of him, toward the bow, an engineer fiddles with an instrument that looks like a cross between a model rocket and a giant hypodermic needle. I'm covered in fish guts. We are in the Bahamas, in a marine preserve, fishing for sharks. We have a research permit to do what's otherwise illegal in this country, but...