Michelle Jewell, Science Communicator, NC State University, Department of Applied Ecology, President, Science Communicators of North Carolina
Breaching — or when large, water-loving animals fling themselves out of the water — is an incredibly costly behavior. There are several hypotheses for why animals like whales, sharks and even Ocean Sunfish do this, from showing off their fitness to ridding their bodies of parasites. Great White Sharks are one of many species that breach, sometimes to catch marine mammals like seals, but the calories they potentially gain don’t balance the cost of the behavior. Could they rather be communicating fitness to potential mates, like whales do? Michelle Jewell takes us through the various hypotheses and details of her research recently featured on Shark Week.
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