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Mission Blue Updates - MARECO X MISSION ERDE
Mission Blue with our colleagues at Mission Erde was a complete success and a lot of the work is still ongoing. Shark research requires time and patience given that these are long-lived animals and inhabit big areas. As such, we need time to gather more data to make our work more impactful, and patience as the British weather can be challenging!
Minimally-invasive tagging
For the last three years, we have been working with our partners at Celtic Deep to develop minimally-invasive (i.e. non-capture, in-water) tagging techniques for blue sharks. Thanks to Mission Blue, we have succeeded and have continued to employ these methods to understand blue shark movements in the North Atlantic. If you are interested in sponsoring a shark tag, please do get in touch!
Multi-sensory camera tags
Together with Robert, we deployed the first in-water camera tags on blue sharks. These tags generate an incredible amount of data: we can quantify their energetic needs, understand where they hang out in the water column, and even predict their behaviour based on the accelerometer data they generate. We are in the process of deploying more of these tags, and producing more data to adequately make management recommendations for the species.
Stereo-photogrammetry
The simplest way to measure a shark is with a measuring tape. How do we do this without getting the shark out of the water/fished on a hook? Using two cameras facing slightly inwards (~8 degrees), we can measure the start and end of a shark in frame in the two cameras. This is called 'stereo', whereby we can generate pretty accurate measurements of our sharks in-frame. We are currently finalising the analyses of these data to understand the population demographics of blue sharks we interact with in the UK, and to share the tools with colleagues.
Non-capture in situ genetics of pelagic sharks
Through the novel work of Emma, we discovered that we can obtain good quality, individual-shark level DNA from a single skin swab. During Mission Blue, we took this a step further and developed a portable lab to be able to analyse these samples and data in situ thanks to Mike from Flinders University. We are currently writing up the results for a research paper, as well as presenting this at the Sharks International conference in Sri Lanka (May 2026). These methods are replicable, and we'll bring them to the field to help colleagues in different parts of the world where lab capacity might be limited, or where the movement of DNA samples is near-impossible.
Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUVs)
We can't protect what we can't see. Baited Remote Underwater Video systems (BRUVs) let us "drop in" on the hidden underwater world at depth, with limited disturbance. By placing a small bait source in front of one or more cameras, we can record what species are present, how they behave, and how communities change through space and time. Over the past several years, we’ve been testing and refining both benthic (seafloor) and pelagic (mid-water) BRUV designs - from frame geometry and bait type, to camera settings and soak times. BRUVs form the backbone of our long-term species monitoring and are a research focus for us in the Isle of Man and South Coast UK in 2026.
As you can see, our work is ongoing and keeps evolving. We need generous supporters to continue to do our work. This can be to support our time on the water (boat time), to acquire new tags or to purchase BRUV systems to identify critical habitats for sharks.
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