There have been so-called sighting of megalodon sharks around the world, but consider what it would take to actually capture and tag one.
Has the thought ever occurred to you what it would actually take to try to capture one and tag it for research purposes. I certainly never gave it a minuets thought. Then I came across the following video.
This video, below, points out the not so obvious challenges that come with capturing and tagging a megalodon shark. It’s an interesting presentation that focuses on the strategy, technique and peculiar challenges of trapping a meg.
The proposed approach is what I would call a scaled up shark-tagging operation. However, what surprised me was the fact that our existing equipment isn’t large enough or strong enough for the operation.
The following quote from a post titled “Researchers reveal true scale of megalodon shark for first time” on the guardian.com gives us an idea of how large the megalodon is calculated to have been.
Researchers used mathematical methods and comparisons with living relatives to find the overall size of the megalodon, which lived from about 23m to 3m years ago but has attracted fame more recently in Hollywood movies including The Meg.
The results suggest a 16-metre megalodon is likely to have had a head about 4.65 metres long, a dorsal fin 1.62 metres tall and a tail 3.85 metres long.
This means an adult human could stand on the back of the shark and be about the same height as the dorsal fin.
H/T – theguardian.com
Watch the video below to see how an operation such as this is envisioned to take place.
Personally, I would have to give an extreme amount of credit to any diver that would jump in the water anywhere near a megalodon.. and with a tranquilizer. Nope for me. Would you or could you even imagine being a diver on this team?
Related Post:
The Megalodon Could Still Actually Exist
Images Source: YouTube Clips
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