Using Geographic Profiling to Track and Protect Sharks
You may have heard of Texas State University-San Marcos professor Kim Rossmo; he’s well known as a leading geographic profiling person for crime. But now, he’s branching out to use the same ideas to track shark. He’s studied bees and bats using these techniques, but sharks are people predators. And, it turns out, they behave a lot like serial killers, at least in terms of geography.
Neil Hammerschlag, a doctoral candidate at the University of Miami, and shark research Aiden Martin, who died in 2007, collected GPS-based shark killing behavior in the waters off South Africa. Then they turned the data over to Rossmo for analysis. The resulting paper, by the three was published this week in the Journal of Zoology (abstract). The bottom line: “sharks do not randomly attack their prey but rather work in a comfort zone around their home base, much like serial killers.” The research may help protect important shark habitats.
