Pictures: "Shark Elevator" Lifts Great Whites From Sea

Entering the Elevator
Image courtesy Chris Ross/Chris Fischer
Going up? During a 2008 expedition, a great white shark swims into position for its first elevator ride in a scene from the new National Geographic Channel documentary series Expedition Great White, premiering Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Able to lift 37 tons, the hydraulic lift had never been used on a marine animal before the great white studies—conducted aboard the research vessel Ocean—began in 2007.
Originally used to lift a power yacht on and off the 126-foot (38-meter) ship, the elevator was retrofitted with substantial railings to haul SUV-size great whites from waters off Mexico's Guadalupe Island (map) for study.
Data from satellite tracking tags fitted to the sharks during the expedition suggest the adult female great whites found around the island spend much of their lives in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
(The National Geographic Channel is part-owned by the National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)

—James Owen
Published June 4, 2010
Fish Out of Water
Image courtesy Chris Ross/Chris Fischer
The hydraulic lift raises a great white shark, which had been caught with tuna bait, out of the Pacific Ocean off Mexico in 2008.
After being brought above deck, this shark was secured to the raised platform for about 15 minutes while the crew took blood samples, measured the shark, and attached a tracking antenna to the fish's dorsal fin.
The giant "shark elevator" has "broken a barrier on our capabilities on great white shark research," according to the 2008 expedition's lead scientist Michael Domeier, director of the California-based Marine Conservation Science Institute.
Previously researchers were able to get this close only to dead specimens, because of the danger the sharks pose in the water, he said.
(Watch video of the shark elevator from the Expedition Great White documentary series.)
Published June 4, 2010
Water of Life
Image courtesy Chris Ross/Chris Fischer
Before the hydraulic lift lowers a great white shark back into the ocean, team member Jody Whitworth lifts the shark's nose, while the ship's captain, Brett McBride, removes the hydration hose—a device that pumps seawater into sharks' mouths and over their gills to stave off suffocation.
Shark conservationist Richard Peirce, chair of the U.K.-based Shark Trust, who wasn't part of the project, said that he "and others in the conservation community would have concerns about catch methods and moving such large animals from the support of the surrounding water. Inappropriate handling can result in damage to internal organs."

Expedition Great White lead scientist Michael Domeier said he had similar concerns. To address them, "we started with small sharks and gradually worked our way up to larger ones," he said. "We found it really wasn't a problem."

(Play an interactive great white game.)
Published June 4, 2010
Shark Sampling
Image courtesy Chris Ross/Chris Fischer
On the shark elevator, lead expedition scientist Michael Domeier takes a blood sample from a great white shark off Mexico's Guadalupe Island in 2008.
Tests of the sharks' sex-hormone levels could reveal whether the annual great white gathering to feast on seals around Guadalupe Island doubles as a mating opportunity. Sperm discovered in the claspers, or external sex organs, of local male sharks suggest eating isn't the area's only allure.
"Males are not in a state of reproductive readiness year-round, so the presence of sperm is a very strong indication of mating," Domeier said.
(Explore a cross-section of a great white's anatomy.)
Published June 4, 2010
Hot Fish
Image courtesy Chris Ross/Chris Fischer
Expedition member Whitey Evans uses a blowtorch to heat-seal plastic bolts that secure a tracking antenna to a great white's dorsal fin off Mexico in 2008.
The hi-tech tracking tags, developed by researcher Michael Domeier, are designed to transmit up to 120,000 messages and can last for up to six years.
Previously Domeier had relied on conventional satellite tracking devices that "you can just harpoon into the sharks." But, he said, "they can only track the animals for nine to ten months."
The new devices are designed to chart migration patterns, which females can take several years to complete.
Because of the bolting required by the new antennas, "we have to capture the shark," Domeier said.
(Meet the expedition crew.)
Published June 4, 2010
Going Down
Image courtesy Chris Ross/Chris Fischer
Lead scientist Michael Domeier watches over a great white as it's lowered in the shark elevator to be released back into the waters off Mexico's Guadalupe Island.
Each year the endangered predators gather around Guadalupe Island, some 160 miles (260 kilometers) off Baja California, to hunt fur seals and elephant seals during the mammals' pupping season.
Male great whites return to the site each year, but adult females show up less frequently.
"We wanted to know where they go," Domeier said of the female sharks. "We've learned that they go out in the middle of the ocean and then stay there."
(Related: "Great White Breaks Distance, Speed Records for Sharks.")
Published June 4, 2010
Great White Takes the Bait
Image courtesy Chris Ross/Chris Fischer
A great white takes the team's bait—a chunk of tuna on a giant, barbless hook—during a 2008 expedition off Mexico's Pacific coast.
The hook is attached to a rope strung with buoys used to tire the powerful fish (a trick that failed to work in Jaws) until the shark is ready for the shark elevator.
"Raising these sharks out of the water," expedition leader Michael Domeier said, "gives me an unprecedented opportunity to examine them."
(Expedition Great White premiers Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel.)
Published June 4, 2010