These days, even sharks have online social networks.
The nonprofit Iemanya Oceanica announced last week that a team including several South Bay residents had successfully tagged three whale sharks, bringing the group's family of trackable sharks to 10.
The new additions -- a type of shark with mouths so big "you could drive a Volkswagen into" them, Iemanya board member Patty Civalleri has said, and that is particularly vulnerable to boat collisions and overfishing -- were found during Iemanya's inaugural tagging expedition, in Bahia de Los Angeles, Mexico.
"We opened up 20 seats on this expedition to the public," said Civalleri, a Manhattan Beach resident, "and because of the assistance from the media, we were able to fill those seats quickly with volunteers who came to us with various levels of water skills and a general knowledge of nature and the ocean. We couldn't have asked for a better group."
That group worked with researchers to attach tags to the sharks' dorsal fins. Through those tags -- and satellite transmission -- Iemanya will learn air and water temperatures, diving patterns, daily and seasonal movement and calving and feeding habits.
And it's sharing it all with you.
"People can now go online and adopt a shark as an educational gift," said Laleh Mohajerani, Iemanya's executive director. "Then every day they can track the movement of their shark," she added.
Get yours. And read Staff Writer Andrea Woodhouse's original Daily Breeze story about the Iemanya tagging expedition.
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