How do you get semen from live great white sharks? You have to be fast, expert says
Prodding the genitals of live great white sharks is only for the bravest of marine researchers, of which SeaWorld’s Gisele Montano may be the boldest.
Her job is to collect semen samples from the great white sharks caught by the nonprofit OCEARCH, in hopes of learning about where they mate, give birth and nurse along the East Coast.
Asked how she does this safely — given her patients are 1,000-pound apex predators — Montano confides that it’s not scary, but it is difficult.
“I have to be very fast and use a very big syringe,” Montano told the McClatchy news group.
A catheter is also required, she says.
It’s not known how the sharks feel about this personal intrusion, but Montano guesses a 12-to-14 foot great white shark likely is not afraid of needles.
“I would say they do feel something ... but because of their size it must feel like a little tug or a little pinch. It does not hurt ... It is a bit uncomfortable,” Montano told McClatchy.
“If you saw the size of the catheter and the size of the animal, you would see it’s very small by comparison.”
Her rushed tests take place as a handful of researchers with OCEARCH tag the shark with a satellite tracker, and other scientists take blood, stool and bacteria samples. In all, the sharks are out of the water no more than 15 minutes, which means there is no time to waste, she says.
OCEARCH Founder Chris Fischer says the work of Montano and the other scientists already has had results, helping to reveal spots where sharks are mating (two spots in the North Atlantic) and when they’re doing it (fall and early winter).
The satellite trackers also have established that great white sharks have an East Coast highway of sorts that runs from Nova Scotia, past the Outer Banks and into the Gulf of Mexico.
“You often hear it said the life of the great white shark is a mystery. Well, that’s not true anymore,” Fischer told McClatchy. “We know where they are wintering and migratory routes, and many other things, so this puzzle is coming together really fast now.”
Montano, a specialist in animal reproduction, has performed semen extraction procedures on about a half dozen sharks, and among her discoveries is that not every male shark has semen. That could be because the sharks weren’t mature enough, or it could be that they recently mated and depleted their semen, she says.
The samples also are raising questions about how we decide when a shark is considered mature: Is a shark considered an adult based on size ... or is it an adult when it is capable of mating, she asks.
Equally puzzling, she says: Do sharks migrate annually to certain areas of the North Atlantic for the plentiful food (seals) or do they go there specifically to mate? Or does the plentiful food in an area simply increase the chances of mating, she wonders.
SeaWorld says Montano’s participation in OCEARCH expeditions will “have important implications in the understanding of migration data, diet and social behavior” of white sharks.
This story was originally published December 2, 2019 at 2:06 PM with the headline "How do you get semen from live great white sharks? You have to be fast, expert says."